Forest Yakuza
by XThorn
Summary: The Hokage of Tokyo's Yakuza group is dead, seemingly without an heir, threatening to cause a war within the branch groups for dominance. Who will use stealth, who will use power and who will use love to get what they want. AU, Saku x Multi
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: As perusal you should all know by now that I do not own Naruto, not the characters or any part of the franchise. I do however own this story's plot line.

AN: Well guys I'm back. I have finished one out of my three exams and although that doesn't sound like a lot my exams go on forever. Take for example my newly completed art exam, it went on for 15hours, that's whole days of solid silence, it nearly killed me. Any way I have a bit of a gap now before my next exam, which isn't until June, and so I thought that I would begin my new story early for all of you. This story is different than my previous work as it is both a Sakura x multi, and it is also an AU so if it seems a little off in places please bear with me as I'm trying something new. Before I finalised on this plot line I had another two ideas fighting with this one in my mind, but I finally choose this one as I had been developing the logistics for this plot for a while longer than the others, that and this idea seemed more interesting and fun to write. Anyway I'm not entirely sure when I will be updating again as I have my other exams to revise for, I'm going to London's MCM Expo and I'm going down south, somewhere near Devon I think, to watch my little brother play in a football tournament. So I'll try and right out the next instalment of this story as soon as possible but I make no promises as to when that will be. Any way I hope that you all like this, my third fan fiction, and enjoy it just as much as you have my previous work, and don't forget to review as it makes my day to read them so review, review, review and review again. Now on with the story. Review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 1<p>

The sun's harsh rays beat down on the earth below.

The fleeing victim panting as she sprinted away in the sweltering heat.

Why did the Kami's torture her so?

Haruno Sakura had been running full pelt throughout the busy streets of Tokyo under the scorching sun, to try and save herself from the beating that that pathetic gaggle of rich daddy's girls were trying to inflict on her. All she had done was severely hurt their egos and not even in a malicious way. No, she had merely retained her title as the best student in the medical sector of Tokyo University. Why should she have to suffer for those air brained girls' lack of revision, if they didn't want to pass the end of term exams then that was fine by her; but why did they always decide that it was her fault that they failed?

Ever since the pink haired woman had won the scholarship at the university she had been subjected to this kind of bullying. But Sakura was a strong woman and had held her head high as she soldiered on with her studies. This had been all well and good until she had taken her first end of term exam and gone straight to the top of the class as she only dropped two marks on the paper. This had automatically caught the unwanted attention of Yamanaka Ino.

Yamanaka Ino was the heiress to a low down branch of the Tokyo Yakuza group; a fact which she constantly used to get whatever she wanted. And here in lied the problem, as the only child of the head of the Yamanaka clan she was expected to excel in all of her endeavours. She held a proud air about her, which was obviously misplaced due to her attitude towards others; there was nothing proud about her. And she did have a sense of beauty in her appearance, even if it was all fake like her peroxide blonde hair. She had also expected to achieve the best grade in her class, but she had to settle for second. And a member of the Yakuza never settled for anything but the best.

Ino had cornered Sakura once the first lot of grades had been published, and threatened her with all of her father's money and power. But that was the thing about the pink haired student she was not one to be told what to do and she knew that she was strong enough to defend herself. And so she had politely told the blonde haired female were she could stick her money and threats, before she wondered off home. Thus the harsh rivalry between the Haruno and the Yamanaka had begun.

Almost three years later and Sakura found herself in similar scenario that she often found herself in at the start of each new term when the papers results were revealed. In a way she was used to it and enjoyed the brisk exercise, but what she loathed with a passion was running under this intense heat and sweating like a pig. She liked smelling of her light perfume and being clean damn it.

Realising that she was beginning to slow down, and that the clacking of stiletto shoes behind her was getting louder indicating their owners impending approach, Sakura decided that enough was finally enough and dived into the nearest maze of alleyways. Running this way and that through the twisting narrow roads she finally found a somewhere to hide. Admittedly it looked filthy but Sakura was already bathing in her own sweat so what was a little more dirt, that and she was now hopelessly lost with no were else to hide. And so she crawled down on her hands knees and wedged herself in between the office building's high brick wall and the metal side of the rusty old dumpster.

One small mercy, Sakura supposed, was that the dumpster had been resent emptied and so the foul stench that was now seeping into her clothing was substantially less than it could have been.

Not too long after, the medical student could hear the high pitched screeching of Yamanaka and her group of stuck up screaming banshees. They appeared to believe that they were gaining on her and that this time they would really put the fear of God into her and make her abandon her pathetic scholarship. Apparently people in a less fortunate position in life didn't deserve the right to try and better themselves, what a load of crap. Other more common shouts of "The pink bitch went that way" could be clearly heard as they ran past Sakura's hiding place, completely oblivious to the fact that their target was so close. But within five minutes the passing gaggle of Yakuza girls could no longer be heard.

Deciding that it was finally safe to move from her crouched position Sakura shifted her weight and balanced on the balls of her feet as she began to rise into a more comfortable position of standing. However whilst her back was still arched a new noise graced her ears and sent her right back down onto her haunches.

A deep baritone voice could be heard echoing out in the confined gap between the large buildings "Why must we meet up in such an inappropriate location?"

A lighter voice replied "Yeah I agree, I mean why couldn't we all just meet up in the conference hall at the Forest house, yeah?"

A pair of sleek polished black shoes walked in front of the dumpster and could clearly be seen stopping there between the gap of the bottom of the dumpster and the earth "Are you really that stupid Deidara-san? You know that none of us are allowed into the Forest house now that the Godaime is dead, and judging by the fact that there isn't an heir at all I'm assuming that it's going to remain that way for a while"

Waiting on baited breath Sakura could hear a new voice join in the secretive conversation "Calm yourselves gentleman, the situation is dire enough without you making matters worse before we know all of the details"

There was a metallic slamming from over head before a whiney voice was heard, obviously from someone now sitting on top of the dumpster "Awww but Neji-san, Deidara-san is right, why did we have to meet up in a dirty alley? We could have all met up at one of our houses or even rented out a conference room some were"

Sighing heavily a monotonous voice spoke up "Because Naruto-san, you baka, if we went to someone's house they could have gathered a small squadron together to ambush us on arrival and we could have all done the same thing if we met up in a neutral building. By meeting up here in such a confined space we don't have the opportunity to bring anyone with us thus we are safer to talk without fear of being assassinate to lower the number of rivals for the Hokage's position"

"It seems you've thoroughly thought this through otouto" replied a humoured tone of voice.

"Now, now boys let's not bicker and fight like children. I do believe we are all here now, so shall we begin?" a more mature voice intervened.

"No, no we aren't all here some ones missing; now let's see there's me, Madara-san, Itachi-san, Sasuke-san, Deidara-san, Sasori-san, Neji-san, Kiba-san, Gaara-san and Pein-san. That means then that we are all just waiting for the pervert" the happy go lucky voice said.

"Well he better hurry the hell up, I've left Akamaru in my car and he'll get antsy if I take too long" bit out a gruff tone.

The cheerful voice returned "_Nah the perv is never more than five minutes late, so he should be here any minute now. One another note I haven't had my daily dose of ramen yet so I need a cigarette, anyone got a lighter I can borrow?"_

_The monotonous voice replied "Here dobe, catch"_

There was a slight shift in the air before a heavy clang of metal hitting metal was heard just before something struck Sakura on the head. Grasping her head with both hands and trying desperately not to make any noise the pink haired student looked down and saw a small silver box with the engraving 'U.S', she then realized the danger she was now in as this was one of the men's lighters that had been thrown. The fact that it was down the back of the dumpster beside her meant that those men would pull out the dumpster to retrieve the missing lighter and in the process they would discover their little pink haired fly on the wall.

These men were obviously dangerous; after all they had mentioned the thought of assassinating one another. The fact that there were ten of them and they were waiting for another one of them to appear only made the situation worse. Sakura wasn't weak by any stretch of the imagination but even she knew that taking on eleven grown men, who she suspected were connected to the Yakuza, was way beyond her limits.

As the bored voice heated up and spat out "Oh well done baka, now you can go behind that disgusting dumpster and ruin your suit whilst you get me my lighter back" the young Haruno began to panic on what to do.

Did she give it a go and try to fight her way out of this? Maybe Kami would be merciful today and allow her to injure these men enough that she can escape without them remembering what she looked like, pink hair and all. Another option was for her to stay perfectly still and to pray to whomever was listening out there that the guy looking for the lighter wouldn't pull out the dumpster and would instead just fumble around with his hand through the small gap, meaning that she could safely remain hidden until all of these men left. Or did she run like the clappers and try to duck and weave her way throughout this maze of alleyways until she reached the populated streets. But then again if these men were somehow linked to the Yakuza they would most likely hold some form of firearm each, and Sakura wasn't the fasted sprinter out there, so there would be a high chance of her actually getting shot.

As the dumpster began to move away from her and the wall the latter option seemed to be her best option and so just as a grumbling blonde head began to poke its way into her blinkered line of sight she launched herself forward with all of her might.

Pushing the large startled blonde man out of her way with her outrageous strength, Sakura heard the outraged cries behind her and the obvious sound of guns triggers being cocked. Flying forward as fast as she could the pink haired woman began to serpentine as she ran in a desperate bid to dodge the lethal bullets whizzing past her head.

A morbid sense of déjà vu set into Sakura's mind as she realised just how similar this scenario was to that of her earlier situation with Ino and her gang, of course this time she was in much more danger and if she was caught she would be subject to worse torture than just a few bruises and scratches, the young woman had no doubt in her mind that if these men chasing her were to catch up to her then she would more than likely end up dead.

After several minutes of endless running and constantly changing her direction, Sakura finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel as she saw an exit to the alley and fast traffic travelling past. And so with what little strength that she had left the young Haruno forced her legs to that much faster as her feet pounded down hard onto the cracked concrete below her rubber soles.

As she broke out into open space of an area full of witnesses Sakura turned around and faced the ten men still running straight at her, although she did realize that all of them had holstered their weapons.

The young woman was brought out of her overly analytical mind when the spiky haired brunette with two red fang shaped tattoos on his cheeks called out to her "Oi you sneaky bitch wait there"

Spinning on the ball of her feet the short woman ran down the street, eyes darting everywhere as she tried to identify her current location or even to see if she recognized anyone around; which fortunately she did.

Straight in front of her not two hundred meters away, stepping out of a low top the ground silver Lotus was her white haired Godfather. She knew that he was powerful as he owned his own private security business which often worked alongside the police force. She maybe putting him in danger by doing this but she had a better chance of survival if she was with him, as did all of the innocent civilians' that were starting to stop and stare at the frantic woman and ten angry men in business suits.

Launching herself into his unsuspecting arms she cried out quickly "Jiraiya-san, please help me" she begged desperately.

Shocked eyes looked down into her wide and frightened ones before looking up at the now slowly approaching men. As all of the pieces began to slide into place within the old man's mind, his eyes dangerously narrowed at the men before him; seemingly stopping them in their tracks.

Not looking away from the young men before him Jiraiya addressed the shaking girl in his arms in firm voice that left no room for argument "Sakura go straight home, I'll call you later"

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth said girl methodically nodded her head before turning tail and swiftly walking in the general direction that she believed would lead her home.

Once she was safely out of view Jiraiya glared dangerously down at the quizzical faces adorning all ten of the men's facial expressions, although a few masked their confusion better than others. He then spat out between clenched teeth "You will all follow me and then you will explain _everything_ that happened"

That being said the white haired man then strode past them ominously, silently demanding that they follow. And like a pack of well trained dogs they all followed behind him.

The spiky haired blond and brunette began to mumble to one another, oblivious to the fury simmering just below the surface of the old man. As their voices and queries grew louder Jiraiya practically yelled out into the sky as he tilted his head up towards the sky "SILENCE"

All the while he continued to move forward towards his destination, ignoring the fearful looks that he was receiving from casual passersby.

And this is how the remainder of the eleven men's short journey went.

In silence.

* * *

><p>AN: Well there you are guys I hope you all enjoyed it, I'm too happy with this chapter but I think that that's because in these first few chapters I'm setting out the foundations for the story before I can really get into the plotline and action, but I hope that you all really enjoyed it anyway. Like I mentioned before I'm not entirely sure when I'll be able to upload again, what with my impending exams, but if I get some more free time I shall start writing again for you lot, but if not then you can expect the next chapter to be out sometime after June. However I shall do my best to get another chapter out to you all before then. If there is any confusion within this chapter then don't worry it will all be explained within the next one or two chapters, trust me I have that all planned out in my head and in a little note book that a friend got me for Christmas. Like I mentioned before this is my first AU story so there may be a few bumps here and there but please bear with me I am just trying something new. Well anyway I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next one. As always please review, review and then review again. Review.<p>

Until the next chapter

XThorn

P.S. This chapter hasn't been BEAT'ed so please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors that you may have found whilst reading this chapter, please and thank you.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Although I do not currently own Naruto in any shape or form, when the day comes that I rule the world I shall then own it all. I joke of course.

AN: Well aren't you guys lucky I have written a chapter sooner than anticipated. I have taking time out of my revision just for this, but I really wanted to start getting into the story and get the basic story line down which should be done within the next two or three chapters so you all have that to look forward to. I have also posted up a poll on my authors page for you all to have a say in who Sakura will eventually end up with. I have a few ideas for certain characters and a friend of mine has already suggested one character, but I want to see who you all want her with. And depending on how this story goes (as I generally make the story up chapter but chapter most of the time) it may not be limited to one single character, so get your votes in and vote for your favourite character. Also what with my remaining exams and revision I strongly doubt that I'll be able to update again this month so chapter three probably won't be up until July at some point, most likely in the middle of the month as I'm also job hunting at the moment, with very little success unfortunately. But I shall try and update as soon as I can. Thank you all, to those of you who have added this story to their alerts and favourites, as well as a thank you to the people who have reviewed this story. Long may it continue, hopefully. So any way I hope that you all enjoy this chapter and I apologies again if my writing an AU story isn't brilliant but work with me on this as it is my first AU and I'm doing my best. So as usual please review as it makes me want to strive forward and continue writing for you all. So yeh review, review and review again. Now on with the chapter. Review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 2<p>

The large modern building was uncommonly empty.

Only a small party of formal men and a selection of various staff were currently within the spacious mansion.

Only the clacking noise of several pairs of polished black shoes slapping down against the smooth marble flooring could be heard.

An elderly long white hared man led the possession, a dark look marring his facial features. He was clearly not in the mood to be messed with as the handsome group of young men followed his lead a few feet behind him. This fact though seemed to have been lost on the oblivious blonde spiked haired male as he called out an inappropriate volume "Oi, oi Pervert-sama what gives? You make us all meet up in that grotty alley then you bring us all to" pausing for a moment Naruto looked around taking in his surroundings "were exactly is here?"

Gritting his teeth so as not to shout out at the blonde in an unseemly manner he hissed "As the Steward I cannot stay in the Forrest house, but I need to be within the heart of Tokyo and so I have been staying here"

Scratching his head giving off the appearance that he was deep in thought Naruto reiterated "Yeh ok then, but that still doesn't explain why we couldn't have just all met up here in the first place and saved ourselves some time and hassle"

A heavy sigh to the left of him drew in the childish man's attention "It was for the same reason that we all met up in the alley Dobe. By bringing us here without telling us we were all unable to bring any armed support with us. Thus again rendering any attempt at assassination useless"

With a sharp glare the _Dobe_ spat out "Shut up Sasuke-teme, I wasn't asking _you_"

Pretending that he didn't hear the pointless bickering behind him and ignoring the growth of a throbbing headache in his temples Jiraiya turned swiftly passed a tall set of dark oak doors and walked into a brightly lit room.

The large rectangular shaped room resembled that of a conference hall. I long polished oak oval table sat proudly in the centre of the oversized room with plush black swivel chairs orderly placed around its edge. There was a particularly high backed chair with scrolls of thin silver metal along the top and sided of the chairs back, strategically placed at the head of the table. Obviously this was for the head of any discussion held within the room. A large crystal chandelier hung low from the high ceiling bathing the entire room in a harsh unnatural light. An assortment of small glass spheres adorned the chrome spindles that decorated the ornate light. All the walls were bleached white in pure paint which only amplified the brightness reflected off into the vast space. On the back North wall a large expansive tree had been painted in vibrant colours with the Tokyo Yakuza group symbol perched just above the top branch of the tree. However there were no windows on any of the walls leaving the chandelier as the only light source available. The lack of windows also added a sense of security and privacy to the room as the only way to breach the halls walls was through the sturdy wooden doors on the South wall. The ebony flooring of the corridor continued into this room, the blackness imbedded with thin veins of white marble.

Striding forward Jiraiya pivoted around and grasped the back of his ornate chair in a white knuckled grip as he wait impatiently for the remaining ten men to take their respective seats. Once everyone was settled two men in identical dark green uniforms calmly entered the hall, each with a simple silver tray in hand.

Both men took to a side of the table and held the tray out to each of the seated individuals. One by one the ten men removed various guns, blades and other weaponry from their person and placed it all onto the outstretched plate of silver.

Once every single man had been thoroughly disarmed the two uniformed men exited the bright room and into the corridor taking the weaponry with them. The heavy oak doors then creaked as they began to close and banged together loudly as they locked with a resounding click.

Demanding everyone's attention as he began to speak Jiraiya maintained his look of fury "Now then gentlemen who wants to tell me what happened in that alley way hmm?"

A long haired blonde immediately lent forward and laid his palms down flat against the polished wooden surface of the table as he began to address the Steward's question "Well we were all in the location that you had told us to meet up at, waiting for you to stop peeping on some poor unsuspecting woman and to finally arrive, yeah. Naruto-san then asked for a light for his cigarette and so the emo over there threw his lighter at him" ignoring the look of death that Sasuke was currently sending his way Deidara continued "But of course Naruto-san can't catch to save his life and the lighter fell behind a rusty old dumpster, yeah. Anyway long story short when the idiot pulled the dumpster away from the wall this chick legged it from behind it. We all chased her and you know the rest. But I don't think that any of us really got a good look at her, yeah"

A universal nod from all ten of the young men confirmed that none of them had managed to get a good look at the fleeing woman's facial features. But then it would still be easy for them to track down a pink haired woman, even in a city as densely populated as Tokyo. Pink hair was an abnormal hair colour whichever way you look at it.

The white haired man's grip on his chair tightened ever so slightly as he asked "Did you shoot her?"

It was the man with crimson fang tattoos on his cheeks that supplied the answer this time "Well of course we did, she could have been out to kill us all or something. But the bitch got away before we could do anything as these pathetic gits obviously don't know how to handle a gun"

Ignoring the hiss from the man at the head of the table Madara casually drummed his fingers against the dark surface before him as he turned a stone glance onto the brunette "Forgive me if I'm wrong Inuzuka-san, but didn't you miss hitting her as well?"

Letting a growl pass his lips Kiba prepared to shout back an insult at the older male. But before he had the opportunity to compose any form of come back the lone man standing bellowed out a commanding "Silence"

Eyes wide in anger Jiraiya voice out in a tone that belied the true level of his furry "We shall talk about this later, for now we shall discuss what I brought you all here for"

The middle Uchiha then interrupted the man in a rather polite fashion "I'm sorry Jiraiya-sama but I believe that it is prudent that we discuss the girl first. Whilst we all sit here discussing out current situation she could be out there causing more trouble for the Forest. Who knows how much she heard"

Inhaling deeply the man at the head of the table tried desperately to calm himself down. He could understand the logic behind Itachi's words but then he knew Sakura; he had known her since she was growing inside her mother's belly. She would never do anything like that, sure she may contact the police but not before she had talked to him about what had happened first. He knew his Goddaughter well and so he knew that the ten men before need not worry about her.

However it was obvious that he would be unable to explain all of this to them without giving too much away; that and the fact that this could be seen as a breach of security would not aid him in convincing the men that Sakura was completely harmless, well in this respect at least. The best option would be to bring her in here thus killing two birds with one stone. The issue with that is that he would be unable to collect her and she would be too wary to willingly come to such a place without him. This then left him with only one unfortunate option, which left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Giving each of the men a steady look Jiraiya finally turned his full attention onto the young crimson haired male "My men are currently unavailable as they are trying to keep Tokyo running until we get our new Hokage, Gaara-san have your men search for the girl and then bring her directly here. Her name is Haruno Sakura. But I warn you if she is hurt then you shall have hell to pay"

He knew that even with that small amount of information Gaara's men would find her and have her brought here within the hour. But still the threat hung heavy in the air.

No, not a threat.

A promise.

OOO

What the hell did they want?

What kind of idiot would honestly dare to try and disturb her whilst she was about to go to sleep.

Whoever was banging at her door at this hour was either incredibly brave or unbelievably stupid, Sakura was betting on the latter.

As she descended the staircase of her small two bedroom family home the incessant bang on her front door grew in its ferocity. Honestly it was getting late and she just wanted to go to sleep and forget about her rather eventful day, she had even changed into her pyjamas of baggy gray jogging bottoms and a tight crimson red tank top. Oh how this had better be good.

Finally reaching the abused door Sakura reached out for the golden door knob before she paused. What if the person behind the door was one of those yakuza guys? Could they really have tracked her down so fast without even knowing anything about her? Mind you how many young pink haired women were there living in Tokyo? But Jiraiya would take care of it wouldn't he?

Shaking her head and removing the onslaught of questions that were now racing through her mind, Sakura lightly pushed her body up against the door and whilst standing on tiptoes, looked out of the front doors peep hole. The sight that greeted her sent waves of panic through her system.

A small group of five burly men stood just outside her house with the biggest built man raising his clenched fist to pound once again on her door. But as shocking as this was, the fact that each of them held a loaded and cocked pistol in hand was by far the most worrisome sight.

Just as the pink haired woman pulled herself away from the cold surface a muffled voice from outside could be heard saying "Arh to hell with this" just before the door splintered and was kicked off its hinges.

Instantly the men swarmed into her house and honed in on her crouched down form. Sakura was no push over, Jiraiya had insisted to her parents when she was little that she be taught how to fight and surprisingly she had excelled at it. Although it had gotten her into trouble in her early teens when she had explored the possibilities of street fighting; she had kicked ass at that too but she had been caught by her Godfather once which had swiftly led to her retirement from that form of fighting. Still it was one thing to fight a fellow opponent, it was quite another to fight five of them whilst they were armed with guns.

No, not even she liked her odds in this fight. That didn't mean that she was just going to lie back and let them riddle her body with lead before putting a final bullet in her head. If she was going to go down, then she was going to go down fighting.

Knowing that running would be futile, as she had no escape, she remained crouched but shifted slightly into a fighting position. A hard stare flickered from one man to the next as they remained still and took in her form.

The tall dark haired man that had been banging on her door took a calm and steady step towards her as he lowered his gun slowly and placed it back into its holster. Sakura noticed however that the other four men still held their guns aloft and aimed directly at her. The bulky man before her then extended his hand out as if he were expecting a hand shake, when it was clear that he was not going to receive one he once again lowered his arm but this time he began to speak in a monotonous voice "Haruno-san we have been sent here to bring to our esteemed leader, unharmed. It would be most beneficial for all of us if you would collect a coat and then calmly accompany us back to our car waiting outside for you"

A sneer graced the beautiful woman's face as she replied without a single pause "Go to hell, do you honestly think that I'll believe you murderous Yakuza scum?"

And without further ado the girl launched herself at the unarmed man and swung her leg up high arching her back as she did so allowing her foot to reach greater heights. A sickening crunch was heard as her bare foot made contact with the dark haired man's jaw, leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that it was in fact broken.

As the man crumpled to the ground desperately clutching at his now slackened jaw in pain, Sakura leapt over his fallen form and braced herself for a heavy impact. Twisting her upper body to the side she dug down and thrust her shoulder forward into the exposed gut of a short muscular man. Pulling away straight after she had winded him the man doubled over gasping for air as he tried to regulate his breathing.

Wasting no time Sakura span around sharply, her short unbound hair flying loosely with her energetic movements, and made a grab for the fist flying towards her face. Being a second too slow she missed the fist but managed to hit the man's arm out of her way, thus getting a harsh punch to her shoulder rather than her flushed face.

Grunting from the pain of her newly forming bruise, Sakura dived underneath the man that had injured her and kicked out viciously catching a jean clad leg unawares. Hooking her foot quickly around his knee she pulled with all her might, effectively pulling out her attackers legs from beneath him and knocking the man to the floor. Making sure that the brute stayed down the young woman raised her elbow high and brought it down full force onto his groin.

Rolling sideways missing the bullet now implanted into her wooden flooring, Sakura began to push herself up but failed to notice the pair of spaced apart feet standing before her. Nor did she notice when the man flipped round his gun and brought down the butt of the revolver onto the back of her head.

But she did notice the blinding pain that erupted in her head, the feeling of being elevated into the air and the tight rope that chaffed against her now bound hands and feet.

Yes Haruno Sakura noticed all of this just before she passed out.

She had lost a fight.

Crap.

OOO

The dark heavy oak doors were pried open.

So then she had been caught.

She was here, and judging by the smashing sounds and loud curses being thrown by the pink haired girl, she was non too happy about it either.

Suddenly the struggling bundle was tossed onto the hard floor at the end of oval table; but only by two of Sabaku no Gaara's men. Sakura had certainly improved her skills in combat if she had been able to take down several of the crimson haired man's men. Had she been out street fighting again? For her sake she had better not have been, lest he force her to have a security guard with her at all times. Like he had tried to force on her several times before, after that _incident_.

But what really drew in Jiraiya's attention was the red burn like marks appearing on her pale skin around her wrists were thick knots of rope rubbed ruthlessly. He warned them not to harm her and yet this is how she was treated, like some kind traitor? No this was simply inexcusable, how dare they abuse her like this.

A deep snarl ripped itself from between his gritted teeth. Automatically Sakura's thrashing and ranting stopped as she whipped her head around to stare with wide emerald green eyes at her Godfather; shock evidently written all over her facial features.

But what sent a desperate feeling of apprehension to sit in the pit of his stomach was not the hurt look that Sakura was now giving him. No, it was something that the curvaceous woman before him was completely oblivious to, but something that Jiraiya did not miss. From each of the ten young men's mouths he heard them all whisper a single word which would forever seal the fate of the pink haired girl.

"Beautiful"

* * *

><p>AN: So there you are the second chapter of 'Forrest Yakuza' I hope you all enjoyed it. This took me ages to write and I don't even know why, but hey it's finished now. I did keep going over this chapter again and again and again as I just wasn't happy with it no matter what I added or changed. As it is I'm relatively pleased with it now so I hope you all liked it. As I said before the base line for the story's plot should be done and dusted with, within the next chapter or so but I'm expecting it to be done by the end of chapter three. Also don't forget to vote on my poll as it will help me to plot the story out in advance a bit more which may help to speed up updates. I shall try and write the next chapter as soon as possible but with my exams it won't be for a while I suspect but I shall do my best to get it done quickly. Thank you all to those of you who have alerted, reviewed and added this story to your favourites, it's you guys that make me want to continue to write. So as always the more reviews I get the happier I'll be and the more inclined I'll be to update soon so please review, review and then review again. Thank you all. Review.<p>

Until the next chapter

XThorn

P.S. Once again this chapter has not been BETA'ed so please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors. Thank you.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever, as much as it pains me to admit, own Naruto or any of the associated characters.

AN: Well it's been awhile I know, and I'm really sorry for the delay in my update but all of my exams are over with now, yay. But unfortunately I have been set a project by the University I'm going to in September so I have to now do that as well as try and get a job, which is actually a hell of a lot harder to do than I would have thought. So yeh updates may be a bit slow until I sort all of that out but I'm hoping it won't be too much of an issue in relation to this but hey you never know so thats just a little heads up in case I don't update for a while and you all think that I've abandoned this story. I haven't and won't but I don't know how long it will take me to sort this stuff out but I will do my best to regularly update for you all but I will try my best to at least update once a month at the bare minimum. But besides this I just want to thank everyone that has reviewed, favourite and alerted this story. You guys make me want to update faster and hurry along with this story so that I can start a new one, so thank you all. Also my poll on my author's page wasn't working for some reason and almost one month later I still haven't received a reply about how to fix this from the support network, so until then you can either send me your choice through a review or private message and I shall manually keep a tally until we have a winner or winner's. Here are the options thus far: Itachi 1, Madara 0, Sasuke 0, Deidara 0, Sasori 0, Neji 0, Kiba 0, Gaara 0, Pein 0 and finally Naruto 0. So Itachi is in the lead at the moment as I have already received a private message with this vote, but hey by the time I update next time it may have all changed. So anyway with that all said and done with, thank you all once again for reading my story I hope you all enjoy it. So without further ado here is your new chapter. And don't forget to review, review and review again. Review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 3<p>

They had just said the word beautiful.

These powerful men never said anything nice like that.

Ever.

And it was at that moment that Jiraiya knew that his beloved Godchild's life was about to become a whole lot more complicated.

He had to help her. Although the information that he was about to divulge would probably only make matters that much worse for the pink haired woman.

Walking around the left side of the table with long confident steps the white haired man tried to keep a cool facade in place and not show how much the hurt look shining in Sakura's wide eyes truly affected him. He had done some pretty awful things in his lifetime, but he had never felt as guilty as he did right at that moment as he carefully unbound the distressed girl, with as much gentleness as he could muster.

A shaky voice graced his trained ears "J-Jiraiya-san you're...you're part of the Yakuza?"

Slowly pulling Sakura to her feet he placed a light hand onto the small of her back and gently guided her around the side of the table that he had previously walked around. He decided not to reply just yet as he wanted to explain everything just once and when the student has calmed down a little bit more, at least until she could talk without any sort of stammer.

This strategy was scuppered however, when an overly exuberant Naruto jumped up from his seat and wailed with a large grin stretched out across his face "Yeh he is, the pervert's the Steward at the moment. But don't worry Sakura-chan, I'll be the Hokage soon and then I'll make you Seisai"

Patience quickly waning Jiraiya sat the now composed girl into his seat at the head of the table whilst he snapped back at the impertinent boy "Shut up Naruto. I'm going to explain everything now but I shall only say this once so you had all better pay attention"

It was the turn of the man with ringed irises to interrupt this time "Shouldn't we deal with this young woman before we discuss such confidential matters?"

Pinching the bridge of his nose the older man sighed heavily. Honestly couldn't any of these men just sit there quietly until he was done speaking? It's like they were still young children or something. Lowering his hand Jiraiya replied "No, in fact having Sakura-chan here will make all of this a lot easier for all of us. Now then when I am talking I don't want any interruptions, this is going to be difficult enough to explain as it is. And I'm sure that this is going to be hard for you to understand, especially you Sakura-chan, but please will you all be patient and listen?"

Looking around the at the group of men and the lone woman, Jiraiya saw them all nod their heads slowly and Naruto once again took his seat, his smile long gone indicating that he understood the seriousness of this conversation.

With eleven mouths firmly shut and all eyes on him the white haired man began his story "Right I'm going to have to start right back to the Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi's rule, so that Sakura will understand what I'm talking about. Sarutobi-sama had two sons whilst he was Hokage; his eldest son was the heir of the Konohagakure Yakuza group and even had a young son himself named Konohamaru. However Konohamaru and both of his parents died in a tragic airplane crash, thus the Sandaime's youngest son Asuma, became the next heir. However only six months after he was announced as the new heir to become Hokage, Asuma-sama went missing. From security footage we believe that he ran away in a bid to escape the pressure of his new role and title. Of course we sent out numerous people and even contacted the police at one point when we became so desperate to find him. Then three years after he went missing Asuma-sama's body was found washed up on a beach in England. We were never able to find out what happened to him for those three years that he was gone. Anyway, not one year after his body was found Sarutobi-sama and his wife both past away. Unfortunately the only heir still alive was Tsunade-sama and her whereabouts were hazy at best. So until we had contacted her Namikaze-san of the Orange leaf took over as Steward despite his young age"

Noticing the frown on Sakura's porcelain face Jiraiya quickly explained "Konoha has one Hokage and eight main branch groups which each have their own set of smaller branch groups" he waved a hand around at the table indicating to the ten men sat around the elevated wooden oval "These men are the heads of those branch groups"

Sakura couldn't help but point out the obvious after that statement "But Jiraiya-san there are ten men here not eight"

Why did he answer her earlier confusion when she had never voice it? Now he was going to have to explain even more details that detracted from the most crucial point of this entire conversation. Still it could not be helped he supposed "You see those three broody dark haired men at the end of the table? Well that's Madara, Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha of the Black leaf branch. Itachi-san and Sasuke-san's father Fugaku-san was the head of the Black leaf until his untimely death due to poor health. Although Itachi-san was the rightful heir to the branch he was much too young to take over command and so until he became of age Madara-san acted as Steward. However when Itachi-san became of age there was discontent within the Uchiha clan as it had become divided. A group of Uchiha wanted Itachi-san to be given his rightful title however there was another group that liked the way things were and so they wanted Madara-san to remain as the Uchiha patriarch. By this time a third group emerged claiming that Sasuke-san would be the best option as the branches head. And so since then the Uchiha clan has been on the brink of a civil war and I doubt that this will change until one of them finally becomes the patriarch. Right?"

Both Sasuke and Madara had their arms firmly folded across their broad chests with a childish pout on their pale faces as their complicated situation was so easily explained. It was Itachi who inclined his head and quietly uttered his confirmation "Indeed"

Nodding his head at Itachi's straight forwardness Jiraiya continued "Where was I? Oh yes that's right Minato-san had been Steward for about a year and a half before he was forced to leave his position. The girl that he had been courting, Uzumaki Kushina, was threatened at gun point, but by who we don't know. So to save her Minato-san had to abdicate from his position as Steward, which he willingly did for the woman he loved despite both of their young ages. He was able to retain his title as the head of the Orange leaf branch and luckily just a few months later we were able to locate Tsunade-sama and thus she became the Godaime Hokage. Although I must admit it did take quite a bit of persuasion"

Slowly Sakura inched one of her hands up into the air ready to ask a question. She knew that Jiraiya had said not to interrupt but he had gone off on a tangent before, plus this way she wasn't technically interrupting him she was merely indicating that she had a query and if he wished to ignore her then he could, it was his call. But judging from the heavy sigh to the side of her he was going to listen to her question.

She was not disappointed "Yes Sakura-chan what is it?"

Looking back over the men who now all stared at her with fascination she asked in a voice stronger then she physically felt "So who's this Namikaze guy?"

The blonde that Jiraiya had previously called 'Naruto' lent forward onto the polished surface of the table and feebly waved a hand at her "He was my Dad"

Sakura was a smart girl and so by Naruto's use of past tense as well as the fact that said man was sitting at the table and not his father, she quickly figured out what had happened "I'm sorry for your loss Namikaze-san"

A dreamy look washed over the boys defined features as he replied "Thanks but the surnames' Uzumaki, and you better remember that Sakura-chan as it's going to be your surname soon"

A growl was elicited from the white haired man drawing all eyes back to him as he continued in a tight voice "As I was saying Tsunade-sama came to power and everything was fine and balanced again. She had fascination and was gifted when it came to medicine and so she regularly met up with Dan-san, the head physician at the Forest house. Within the first eight months of them meeting Tsunade-sama and Dan-san were married. Not long after the Godaime became pregnant"

Gasps were heard from all around the table, but then this was the sort of reaction that he had been expecting. To be honest though the young men were taking this better than he thought they would, Jiraiya had assumed that there would be shouting and that fists would be flying everywhere. But they merely stared at him wide eyed.

The deathly silence that had fallen over them was soon broken when the man with the kanji for 'love' tattooed upon his forehead asked "So then Konoha has an heir?"

Not wanting to push his luck too far at the moment Jiraiya decided to bypass that question and continue on to explain past events "Not many people were told about the Godaime's pregnancy but as a close and loyal childhood friend I was informed of the situation. The baby was to remain a secret until the doctors were sure that the foetus was completely strong and healthy. However after Tsunade-sama reached her second month of pregnancy Dan-san was fatally wounded in an assassination attempt, he died one week after he was attacked" he paused and took in a deep breath to calm his nerves before he continued "Fearing that she may be attacked next and have a miscarriage, the Hokage went into hiding for the remainder of her pregnancy and left me in charge. On November 18th of that year Tsunade-sama gave birth to a little girl and named her Shizune. Not wanting to put her and Dan-san's child in danger, she gave the baby to me to find an adoptive family for the girl so that she would be safe. I did as instructed and found a suitable family for the child. Of course I looked after the child as well and kept tabs on her, I became a family friend and even became like another parent to her. I regularly took photos and videos of Shizune-chan so that Tsunade-sama could still watch her daughter grow up to be a beautiful young woman. We had planned to reveal to her who she truly was when she reached her twenty first birthday, but due to certain circumstances that plan was rendered useless"

The white eyed man with long chocolate brown hair was the person who interrupted Jiraiya in his explanation this time "And what would that unfortunate circumstance be?"

Glaring at the young man that had interrupted his explanation whilst he had been on a role, the older man replied in a deeper tone of voice "I was just getting to that if you hadn't interrupted me. Now can I continue or are there any other questions that you all want to voice hmmm?"

No one moved or said a word. Taking this as his queue Jiraiya continued "When Shizune was nineteen she got married and pregnant. She had been doing an apprenticeship at Tokyo Infirmary Hospital as part of her medical course at University, and fell in love with the head of security there, Hatake Kakashi. Can't say that I really approved of this at first what with him being a few years older than her, but he was a good guy and they really did seem happy together. Anyway with the pregnancy Tsunade-sama began to worry that her grandchild would be a target for a rival Yakuza group, so she decided that when the baby was eighteen years old then the small family would be told who they truly were. A few months after this was decided Shizune-chan gave birth to a uniquely beautiful little girl, again I was closely tied to the little girl and followed the same pattern as I had when Shizune-chan was a child. I have to say though that child is just like her Grandmother, she's short tempered, constantly getting into fights and she has one hell of a punch. And just like her Mother and Grandmother she has a natural affinity for medicine, she is currently studying at University and has also enrolled at the same hospital that her Mother worked in"

Yet again Jiraiya was interrupted, this was really starting to grate on his nerves and the next person to stop his explanation would be thrown out this room and would have to be left in the dark. Screw the consequences, he was getting pissed. The light monotonous voice of Sasuke spoke up "So then we have to get this Hatake Shizune before anyone else realises who she is? That shouldn't be a problem I'll have some of my men go and pick her up"

No one seemed to notice the horrified look adorning Sakura's now ashen face.

Slamming his hand down on the table to get all eyes back on him, Jiraiya hissed out "If any of you interrupt me again I sweat that I'll personally send you to the emergency room. Now as I was saying, when Shizune-chan's daughter was sixteen the Tokyo Infirmary was raided. A group of drug dealers had just lost a large warehouse of cocaine when the police had been tipped off to their location. The men were desperate for any sort of drug that they could sell on the streets and so they attacked the hospital. Shizune-chan was working there at the time and was shot in the head when she refused to give them the key code for the pharmacies vault. The same fate befell Kakashi-san when he attempted to disarm one of the men. The dealers managed to escape the police but we swiftly dealt with them"

Jiraiya stood back up to his full height and folded his arms across his chest, he needed to quickly recompose himself before he continued "Tsunade-sama had fallen ill by this time and thought that the best course of action would be to prolong the time before we told her granddaughter who she truly was, and so this information was to be disclosed to all on the girls twenty first birthday. Unfortunately the girls adoptive grandparents had passed on whilst she was still a toddler and with the Godaime's recent death I have had no choice but to move things along sooner than planned, although she is twenty at the moment; and that is why I have summoned you all here"

The second red head with deep brown eyes lent forward this time and said "So we do have an heir? This Hatake girl is to be the next Hokage then?"

Shaking his head slowly the white haired man replied "Shizune-chan was as stubborn as her Mother and she refused to take Kakashi-san's name, so he agreed to take the surname of her adoptive parents. Thus the girl has that name, but yes she is the only and rightful heir to the position of Konohagakure's Hokage"

The man previously identified as Madara rested his elbow on the smooth wooden table and lent his head against his palm, obviously losing interest in the conversation now that it was clear he had no chance of claiming the title of Hokage. Still he didn't like being ignored "So what's the girls name then?"

Walking behind the head chair, Jiraiya placed a hand on both of Sakura's shoulders and gave them both a reassuring squeeze before he asked "Sakura-chan, what was the name of both of your parents?"

The frozen and terrified woman just sat there stunned as she robotically replied "Haruno Shizune and Kakashi"

Slacked jaws and wide glazed eyes stared in shock at the pink haired woman at the head of the table.

This couldn't be. She didn't want this. Her parents were good law abiding people.

But she was the heir to Konohagakure.

In a weak and shaky voice she uttered but a single word.

"No"

* * *

><p>AN: So there you are I bet none of you were expecting that, well least I hope you weren't. I know not a lot happened in this chapter but I needed to get all of this information down and out of the way so that the rest of the story actually made sense, sorry if it was slightly boring but I tried to make it interesting for you all as well. Also sorry if it was a bit confusing at any point, I did try and make it as simple as possible but I know that there was a lot of information to take in there. Any way don't forget to vote. I'll try and update as soon as possible but I don't know when that will be. Please review as well and I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, hopefully from now on the story can properly develop and move on so that there won't be just a plot base as I'm pretty sure that I'm done with the structure setting now, although there may be a little extra here and there but mainly I think the fun can now start. So yeh review, review, review and review again.<p>

Until the next chapter

XThorn

P.S. This chapter has not been BETA'ed so please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors, please and thank you.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters affiliated with the franchise that all belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

AN: Hey guys I'm back sooner than expected but things still aren't going brilliantly down my end, I still don't have a job and I'm freaking out about going to University. On the upside my driving lessons are going better and in just over a month I'll be 18 and I can finally join my friends in clubbing and buying alcohol, not that I enjoy drinking but it's nice to have the option. So yeh that's my little rant down with. Thanks for all the reviews as well as the alerts and favourites from all you guys it's what's made me write out this chapter sooner than expected for you all. Also as it stands at the moment here's the results from my manual poll for who will eventually be paired off with Sakura: Itachi 1, Pein 1, Madara 0, Sasuke 0, Deidara 0, Sasori 0, Neji 0, Kiba 0, Gaara 0 and Naruto 0. Also asdf, asked if there could be a vote for a harem, now although I'm not going to put a vote up for it I'm not going to rule it out as a possibility but the fact of the matter is doubt that I'll pair Sakura off with more than one person, but like I said nothings finalised it's just very unlikely. They also pointed out to me that I need to post definitions up for some of the words that I've used so here are the two requested words: Seisai, is the wife or equivalent to the head of a Yakuza group, and, Steward, is someone who takes over a position of power when the rightful person to that power is unavailable. For example if a King died and the heir to the throne was missing, then an allocated person would take over as Steward until the heir returned and claimed the position. I hope that clears up any confusion and if there are any words that I use in the future that aren't commonly known then I shall leave a definition for you all but if I miss one then don't hesitate to notify me in whatever way that you see fit and I shall let you all know in the next chapter. So yeh don't forget to private message or review me with your votes for the poll as they could drastically change at any moment. So review please and then review again and again and then review again, thank you. Review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 4<p>

Well this wasn't happening.

She wouldn't let it happen.

So, calmly and politely Sakura told all of the Yakuza men before her were they could stick their heir to the Hokage title.

She did this just before she jumped up onto the table, sprinted across the polished surface and kicked open the now splintered wooden doors and ran for all that she was worth.

She had heard a large scuffle and shouts from behind her as the men gave chase; but Sakura was fast and desperate, and once she was hauling herself over the high brick wall surrounding the extensive building she had managed to lose every single one of them.

By the time she had ran all the way home, after stopping five or six times to try and work out where the hell she was, she only had time to grab a fresh set of clothing and her back pack before she had to run off to University. She may have just had a traumatic experience and had a deep dark family secret revealed to her but that was still no reason for her miss a day of her schooling. She wasn't the top of her class for nothing, she worked hard damn it and she was not about to let this little indiscretion stop her.

She numbly walked through the busy corridors as she tried to keep her eyes open. Having to run around all afternoon yesterday as well as the early hours of this morning without a wink of sleep, the pink haired student was tired to say the least.

Fellow students walked past her without so much as glancing her way, she was invisible to the social scene of the University and that is how she wanted to stay; invisible.

This want, or need for a better word, was not granted to the poor girl as a stereotypical dumb blonde flounced up to her with an entourage of like minded girls. Well that wasn't really fair on Yamanaka as she must have held some intellect in that overly preened head of hers else she wouldn't score just below the pink haired female, but still a little mental insult here and there never hurt anyone, that and the way in which she presented herself didn't really help her cause.

Obviously these girls were planning on inflicting some pain to the little escapee from yesterdays chase. Sakura wasn't overly concerned by this at the moment due to the fact that she was surrounded by witnesses, the security camera's lining alcove's also helped to reassure her, but mainly it was down to her awareness, she was just too tired to really care at this point.

With her perfectly manicured hands on her exposed hips, Ino sneered out "I'm surprised that you even bothered to show your ugly face around here again Haruno-san" then flipping her unnaturally blonde hair over her shoulder she continued "I might even let you off from your little escapade yesterday just because I feel that sorry for you having a face like that"

The sniggers and giggles of the girls flanking the pig were easily heard over the noise of the busy hallway, not that Sakura paid them any mind. Forcing her drooping eyes open she stared at Ino with an expressionless face replying "Look Ino-san, can we please skip the verbal onslaught for today? I really can't be assed with anything today so if you don't mind I will be on my way and I shall see you at second period"

The pinkette tried to then side step the blonde in front of her but was halted by said irate blonde. Clearly the girl didn't like to be brushed aside and once again her large ego rose to the surface "Don't you dare walk away from me before I've dismissed you. Do you know who I am? You are not worth the dirt beneath my feet. You should feel privileged that I even waste my precious breath on you, you pathetic bitch"

The tirade was obviously going to continue as the Yakama heiress inhaled deeply, but before she could vocalise her insults further a loud masculine voice called out from behind the pink haired student "Haruno-sama we found you"

Sakura didn't even bother to turn around as she felt two pairs of hands on her shoulders in a firm grip. They found her so quickly, not that she really should have been surprised what with Jiraiya working with these men. She knew that they would come after her at some point but she had thought that it would have at least been her godfather coming to apologise for the life time of lies, but she never expected for any of them to come to her University. The look of surprise on Ino's face though almost made this situation worth it.

After a long stretch of silence between the small group Ino began to flutter her eyelashes at the two men stood on either side of the pink haired woman "Naruto-san, Sasuke-kun did you come to see me? You don't have to threaten Haruno-san for me, I can deal with her my...wait a minute did you say Haruno-_sama_?"

A beaming smile spread across Naruto's face as he replied "Yep this is Haruno-sama, we would never dare threaten her. And look how cute she is"

The deeper voice of Uchiha Sasuke was heard for the first time that day "Don't refer to me in such a familiar manner Yakama-san know your place. And don't flatter yourself; we have no business with you, we're here for Haruno-sama"

A heavy sigh left the young Haruno as she shrugged off the men's hands from her shoulder's "Don't call me Haruno-sama my name is Sakura"

Naruto, still grinning like the Cheshire cat, drew Sakura into a tight embrace as he rubbed a striped cheek against the crown of her head "Ok then Sakura-chan"

Sasuke sent a glare at the blonde male as he hissed out "Don't take liberties" he then turned his softening gaze towards the trapped woman and decided to be a hypocrite "You shouldn't have run off Sakura-chan, you had us all worried. What if another syndicate found you?"

Ignoring the over grown child who still had her caged in his muscular arms she responded "Well that wouldn't have mattered would it because I'm not taking the position. Give it to someone else and leave me the hell alone"

Continuing with his ministrations Naruto replied "There is no one else Sakura-chan. You're the last and only living heir"

Just as she was saying 'tough' the big busty blonde screeched out like a banshee "What the hell is going on?"

They all turned to look at the angry young woman as she folded her arms a pushed up her chest. Then without thinking of the consequences the head of the Orange leaf cheered "Sakura-chan's the Hokage's heir"

For a moment only the stunned gasps from the gaggle of airheaded girls forming a semi circle behind Ino could be heard. Then silence reined over the group as the passing students kept the corridor busy and loud.

"You baka" Sasuke began to hiss out, but once again the over pampered blonde interrupted this time with an ear piercing scream of "WHAT?"

When all eyes were focused back onto her Ino continued with her high pitched yelling "That stupid bitch is going to be our Hokage? Little miss _fucking _goody two shoes, over there who won't even fight back unless provoked? She's got more power than me, more money? _I'm_ below _her?_ The ugly cow beats me in class and now, even after I've made her life hell, she's going to be socially better than me as well"

The enraged looks that the two men now shot at her were more than enough to demonstrate that she had not only crossed the line but that she had decimated it. Sakura let her head hang low as she braced herself for a full out argument between Ino and the two Yakuza branch heads. Although she did feel slightly sorry for her rival as she may not know these men, hardly at all, but even she recognised a dangerous person when she saw one.

"How dare you speak to Sakura-chan like that, she is your superior. You are no one to us Yakama; you are the lowest of the low to Konoha. Your father doesn't even hold a high rank. The only people below you are the grunts that work for the branches" spat out the furious Uzumaki, his face flushed red from rage.

Sasuke took a step forward as he glowered at the wide eyed female before him "We shall inform your parents of this little transgression as well as Jiraiya-sama to see if any disciplinary action needs to be taken for you behaviour towards your Hokage"

That was it Sakura had had enough.

Stretching her arm out straight she suddenly brought it back at full force and dug it deep into Naruto's gut. She heard the breath whooshing out of the man's lungs and passed her ear as he doubled over and released her from his death like grip.

With one man know rolling around groaning on the carpeted floor and everyone else now looking at her the pink haired hell cat raised her head high and stood tall "Now all of you listen here. I don't care who my biological maternal grandmother was and I don't care if there isn't another heir. I will not be involved with the Yakuza in any way shape or form so I won't become this Hokage, or whatever the hell the head is called. Now get that through your thick skulls and fight over the title amongst yourselves"

She stormed past the group in the direction of her class before anyone could stop her but called back over her shoulder "And tell that to the rest of your syndicate. I don't want to ever see any of you again, that includes Jiraiya-san"

And with that she turned sharply around a bend in the corridor and went into the one place were her life was just a bit peaceful.

Class.

OOO

She hadn't been in second period.

It made for a very nice lesson.

One of the best she had ever had if she really thought about it. It was the first class that she had had in a long time were she wasn't abused or humiliated in some way. Yep Sakura could defiantly get used to University without Yakama Ino.

However she couldn't really say the same for this, her forth lesson of the day. No if anything from the moment the teacher arrived in that room her class, along with her day, went straight to hell. Oh God why do you hate me.

Sakura's forth period of the day was to go over notes that they had all collected from their work placements at hospitals and doctor's surgeries. It was a fairly straight forward thing to do which only really needed a teacher present to stop some pupils from using this time to gossip; that and to make sure that students actually turned up to the class.

The pinkette had all her notebooks and several files spread out across an entire desk effectively alienating herself from the rest of her fellow class mates. That was how she liked to learn, study and live; alone.

Her black parker pen was poised over a virgin piece of crisp white lined paper when the door to the room was pushed open with a slight bang. She didn't look up and acknowledge the teacher at first but when he called for everyone's attention she felt like she had to, after all she wasn't rude.

Flapping his hands gently in front of his person to calm down the lively chatter of the room he spoke in a firm and confident voice "Now now then settle down. I have two new students to introduce to you all"

Noticing the surprised voices beginning to rise the professor held up his hand for silence as he once again continued "I know that this is odd considering that you are all in your final year here and are preparing to leave soon, but these two gentlemen are acting more like administrators for your placements. Whilst you're away from the University, and in some cases whilst you are here, they will be shadowing certain individuals and then giving you all feedback. We hope that this will enable you to correct your wrongs, to learn faster and to take on another person's opinion in your work and diagnoses. Hopefully this will also help with you upcoming exams"

A few murmurs here and there were heard but other than that the man at the front of the room remained uninterrupted as he finally ushered in these two new _students_ "Please will you all politely welcome to Tokyo University Mr Uzumaki Naruto and Mr Uchiha Sasuke"

Then as bold as brass the pair of deadly men walked in with smug smirks adorning their faces as the politely greeted the class full of medical students, but not once did they take their eyes off of the irate pink haired girl sat at the back of the room.

She just couldn't believe this. Her sanctuary had just been invaded by these pompous asses and judging by what her professor had just said, she would bet her last yen that she would be seeing these men at her hospital as well.

The class suddenly fell silent as a loud bang resounded throughout the slightly cramped room.

The pink haired woman slammed her forehead down onto the rough wooden surface of her crowded desk as she practically screamed in out in frustration.

"Ouch"

* * *

><p>AN: Well there you are I hope you enjoyed this. This shockingly took me about five days to write, I just couldn't get into it. I'd write a small bit and then be like 'No that just doesn't sound write' so I'd then delete it and try again but what with a small bout of writers block it was a struggle. Any way it's done now so I hope you all liked it. I'm going on holiday next month but I shall try and get at least one more chapter up for you all before I go, but I'm not making any promises. I have a rough idea of what I'll be putting into the next chapter so hopefully that will speed up the process. I'll introduce the other men to Sakura personally as the chapters go on like I did with Naruto and Sasuke this time. I'll probably use Kiba for the next chapter but I'm not entirely sure. So yeh don't forget to vote for your favourite character to be with Sakura via either a review or a private message, the way this story goes could all depend on you guys and who you vote our favourite pink haired protagonist to be with so don't forget to vote. Also don't forget to review as that's what spurs me on to write more, it also makes me stick to this story rather than leaving it to start another one from the five or six new stories flying around in my head. So of course review, review and then review again and again. Review.<p>

Until the next chapter

XThorn

P.S. This chapter, much like the majority of my previous work as I'm sure you all know by now, has not been BETA'ed to please forgive any spelling and grammatical errors, thank you.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not Naruto; that privilege belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, as much as it pains me to admit.

AN: So yes I'm back early especially for all you guys before I go away on holiday just like I promised. Thank you to all of those who have reviewed, favourite and alerted this story, it's you guys that make me carry on writing and hating the amount of new story lines that pop up into my head. I just don't have to time to write them all at once, but don't worry I shall get them all done at some point.

Also as requested I have fore gone my traditional long one chunk paragraph of an author's note, and have decided to correctly paragraph it all. I aim to please all my readers so I hope that this makes things much simpler for you all.

Right now my busy bee's you've been voting well and here is the results from the poll so far as it stands: Itachi 4, Sasori 2, Naruto 2, Madara 1, Pein 1, Sasuke 0, Deidara 0, Neji 0, Kiba 0 and Gaara 0. So Itachi is still leading the way here but continue to vote as this could easily change at any time. So continue to vote through either private messages or through your reviews and the male that gets Sakura may be different.

Again there have been lots of people requesting a harem but I doubt that I'll write about that happening. I'm just letting you all know in advance that the chance of that happening is very remote so that you won't all be disappointed with this story I hope.

Also just a word of warning, from this point on I may start using stronger language as I've pretty much exhausted the amount of times that I can say crap, damn and the like. And although I won't be going to the extent of using the C word I shall be using harsher curses so just warn you all in advance just in case this may offend some of you.

The next update won't be until late August as I'm going away on holiday, have my 18th Birthday and I have to pick up my A level exam results. So I'm going to be rather busy from this point forward so just a word of warning about the gap in updates between this chapter and the next, I haven't given up on this story, so don't worry or panic about that, it's just that I'm going to be too busy to write for a while.

So please review this chapter as it encourages me to carry on writing. So without further ado enjoy chapter five of Forrest Yakuza. And review, review and review again. Review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 5<p>

Oh she was pissed.

I mean who the hell did they think they were?

The young Haruno mentally debated the pros and cons of lecturing the two gits that were currently following her. On the up side she could rant and rave all she wanted and blow off some much pent up steam. On the down side that would mean that she would be acknowledging the pair of Yakuza scum, which she knew was just what they wanted and there was no way in heaven and hell that she was going to reward the two men for their outrageous actions.

Unfortunately for Sakura she didn't have the best temper in the world, and when she was enraged she just had to let it give lest she explode and take down everything in sight. Sod the consequences.

Continuing to stride forward briskly with the two men trailing behind her, as they had been doing all day, she grit out between clenched teeth "I can't believe you two. This is a University, it is the place where I come to learn and the two of you just swan in here, you _invade_ my one place of Eden, and bribe your way into a ludicrous position. This is place of intellect and morals and in one fell swoop you both destroy it all. Is there anywhere that's not corrupt?"

Noticing that Naruto had opened his wide grinning mouth to reply Sakura quickly cut him off before he could interrupt "Don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question. And honestly who the hell believes that your administrators here to shadow and help us, it's the most ludicrous thing that I've ever heard. If you both wanted to stalk me so bad couldn't you have at least had the courtesy to do it from afar? And if I tell you to leave me alone, as your superior, don't you have to listen to me?"

A knowing smirk spread across Sasuke's face as he replied "We were under the impression that you didn't want to be our Hokage. Besides until you except the position and complete the coronation you are nothing more than a civilian with a claim to the title of Hokage, so really we don't have to listen to anything you say just yet"

Twisting her head so that she could glare directly at the youngest Uchiha she inquired "So when you were berating Yamanaka-san this morning about being disrespectful to her superiors then what was that?"

The smirk adorning the dark haired man's face only grew in his merriment "It's selective superiority for whenever it suits for the time being"

"Fantastic" she uttered under her breath as the pink haired woman pushed open the final double doors of the large building. Sakura exited the University for the day, intent on getting home for a nice relaxing evening reading with a piping hot cup of tea in hand. Obviously this wasn't going to happen as the petite woman's afternoon was about to take yet another Yakuza shaped turn for the worse.

Walking down the slate paved pathway towards the tarmac road Sakura was too engrossed in mentally thinking of ways to escape from this nightmare that she failed to notice a protruding slab of stone which served to send her flying. The young Haruno's precious books flew out of her arms and scattered across the black road. Cursing fervently she shooed off the two pestering men as they danced around panicked that she was injured.

Standing up and dusting herself off she bent over and began to retrieve her much valued pieces of literature. As she went to collect the last leather bound piece of text, Sakura heard a deep husky laugh from behind her. Twisting her head to look at the new intruder to her once peaceful life, the medical student new that any thought of her nice quiet evening in would be nothing more than a pipe dream.

There, stood against a sleek black Lamborghini with a large white dog panting at his side was another one of those branch leaders. And his cocky grin when he saw her did nothing to lighten her mood. His over confident greeting didn't help much either "Inuzuka Kiba, Leader of the Brown leaf Mi lady. I'm here to escort you to Jiraiya-sama" leaning over slightly to the left with a tilt of his head as he stared at her firm ass "Wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you now would we?"

Sakura was about to stand up tall and give the Inuzuka a piece of her mind when she was suddenly knocked over and forced back down onto the hard ground. It took the young woman a second to comprehend what had happened, but when she realised her situation she was horrified.

Originally she had believed that Naruto was becoming hyperactive and possessive again, and had rugby tackled her to the ground in a tight hug. This theory was obviously proven wrong when she felt a warm and smelly breath panting hard next to her ear, a rough rhythm of movement pushing her harder into the hard ground and, most importantly, looking over her shoulder to see the large white dog that was occupying the space of her back.

In layman's terms she was being _humped_ by a _dog_.

Three high pitched screeches from the so say _men_ could easily be heard over the happy barks of the horny dog. Quickly though these screeches turned into loud angry shouts of "Akamaru get the hell off of Sakura-sama"

The dog was yanked away harshly by his leather collar as he yipped in surprise and disappointment at losing his favourite new toy. The happy swishing of Akamaru's fluffy tail didn't diminish any though, even whilst he was being scolded by his master. He liked the petite pretty woman, she smelt nice.

Not wasting any time what so ever once she had been freed from the randy canine, Sakura stood up ramrod straight blushing blood red. The girl could take anything violent and she could fight with the best of them, but let it be said she was a bit of a prude; and so being dry humped by a dog in front of three very handsome men was beyond highly embarrassing for the poor girl.

Coughing nervously into her hand and lowering her gaze to the floor she said "Yes well as lovely as it is to meet you and your dog, Kiba-san, I'm in no way inclined to go and see that lying pervert. So if you don't mind I'll be going home now"

"Awwww but Sakura-chan I wanted to take you out tonight" whined Naruto, as he pouted and puffed out his cheeks like a little child in the mists of a temper tantrum.

Sasuke promptly bashed the blonde around the back of his head and replied monotonously "If Jiraiya-sama has summoned Sakura-sama then you can't take her out you dolt. However" at this Sasuke redirected his empty eyes towards the Inuzuka "that doesn't mean that I can't escort the heir safely to her meeting"

A slight growl ripped itself from the tattooed boys down turned mouth as he took a warning step towards the pair of insolent men "_I _was told to bring Sakura-sama with me, and so no one _but me_ will be chaperoning her until we reach the Steward"

As the childish argument continued in a similar fashion Sakura rolled her eyes dramatically, still trying to work out if these people she was currently surrounded by were really grown men or just over sized children playing Grown-ups. After a while of listening to the toing and froing of the petty argument between the three _men_ Sakura had had enough.

However as she went to step past the male brunette she was grabbed around the waist by a pair of strong hands and thrown over the tall man's shoulder. After she had recovered from having the wind knocked out of her, Sakura realised that she was being carried like a sack of potatoes towards Kiba's car. This did not sit well with the short tempered female.

"Inuzuka-san put me down now or I swear to God that I will knock those fucking ridiculous tattoos off of your ugly smarmy face" she was kicking, pounding and all around doing anything that she could think of to try and get out of his iron like grip. Unfortunately for Sakura, Kiba was used to rough housing and so she would be unable to throw the man off unless they engaged in a proper fight; and from the young Haruno's position that was unlikely to happen.

Using his spare hand to grasp the silver door handle and opening the sleek car with a wide smirk, Kiba replied "You wound me with your words Sakura-sama, but we both know that I am anything but ugly. Also orders are orders and as you aren't quite my superior yet I have to follow Jiraiya-sama's instructions. So if you won't come with me willingly then I'm just going to have to kidnap you for the time being then, aren't I now?"

Then without further ado the Inuzuka leader threw the poor unprepared girl with a squeal of indignation into the back of his Lamborghini, closely followed by a hyperactive canine "Akamaru pin her down so she doesn't escape, but don't get frisky with her again. You know that I don't like it when you do that to my girls"

As Kiba climbed into the driver's seat of the car he heard the cry from both the other Yakuza men, as well as a muffed shout from the girl currently being crushed by his beloved pet, who were now glaring daggers at him "She isn't yours, she's mine ass hole"

The Uchiha and Uzumaki then redirected their glares at each other after their synchronised yell, and promptly began to brawl on the tarmac. This however left Kiba with plenty of time drive off to Jiraiya with his precious cargo in the back.

The dog lover's smirk only managed to grin wider at that thought.

Oh how Inuzuka Kiba loved his job.

OOO

The little girl was so cute.

But that didn't mean that she still shouldn't be pissed at Jiraiya for having her kidnapped and dragged all the way out here.

But that girl was just so damn adorable.

Once Sakura had been released from her furry prison she had been shown into the largest house she had ever seen, rather than a house she just had to call it a mansion. The term house just didn't do it justice, despite its name, Forest House.

The grounds themselves were massive and the gardens were clearly pruned and tended to regularly as not a single leaf or blade of grass was out of place and it all worked wonderfully together to complete a look of pure beauty. The mansion stood proudly in the centre of all of the foliage. The building itself was created in a Western style but there was obviously the traditional Eastern influence seen here and there in the decor, especially in the scroll alcove and turned edge of the tiled roof.

A short grand marble stair well lined with tall white pillars led up to a set of large oak engraved double doors which had been given thin gold detailing along certain areas to emphasise the effect of the engrave art work. This was grandeur in every sense of the word. And although Sakura would never say so out loud, she couldn't help but to admire the obvious skill that the architect had to create such a majestic building befitting even and Emperor. Personally though the young Haruno preferred a more quaint and cosy building over such magnificence.

Upon entering the vast building the pink haired woman was led into one of the many drawing rooms and asked to sit down on one of the plush embroidered sofas whilst she waited for Jiraiya to arrive.

Sakura had spent her time waiting by looking around the large vibrant room. Although she didn't really ponder on the contents of the room itself, more so on the few rough looking men who had been wondering the halls, and even cleaning in some cases, whilst she was brought to this room. Why had they all turned to stare at her so, did they already know who she was? Were they like this mansions guards or were they a proper part of Konohagakure Yakuza?

Not five minutes into her thoughts the white haired pervert walked into the large room with a small girl walking beside him with her arms tightly folded across her chest. But it was that air of seriousness that the girl was trying to give off as she sauntered in that was Sakura's undoing. She was just so cute.

The green biker goggles that perched on top of the bushy light brown mop of hair glinted and flashed under the manufactured light of the glass chandelier hanging directly above as the short girl tilt her chin high into the air "The names Moegi, and I don't take shit from no one; Miss"

Jiraiya, smirk proudly in place, came up behind Moegi and placed a strong hand comfortingly on her shoulder as he addressed the young Haruno "Sakura-chan this is Moegi she's fourteen and she is going to be, in a sense, your lady in waiting"

Automatically a grin stretched across Sakura's pale face as an image of the young Moegi in a sweet little Victorian maids outfit sprung to mind.

There was only word for it.

Kawaii.

* * *

><p>AN: So here you go guys the next chapter for you all I hope you liked it, I wanted this chapter to be quite funny and I hope that I have managed to get that across and that you all had a good giggle at this. Even if you didn't find this funny I hope that you at least enjoyed it.<p>

Words that may need explaining: Coronation, the ceremony of crowning a monarch, Rugby, is a sport very similar to American football but the players don't were protection like helmets. If there are any other words here that you are unsure about then don't hesitate to let me know in a review or a private message and I shall either let you know directly or I shall also leave the meaning to said word in the author's note of my next chapter.

As I said before I'm going to be very busy from now on for a while what with my holiday and all that, so don't forget I won't be updating again until late August at the earliest and I haven't given up on this story, I'm just really busy for a while.

Don't forget to continue voting for the character you most want Sakura to end up with, if you haven't already, you all know how, and I'll begin directing this story in that direction once our young heroine has properly met all of the male leads.

Right well something big is going to happen in either the next chapter or the one after that so you have that to all look forward to but until then please continue to review, favourite and alert this story as that's what makes me continue to write down these mental plot lines that just randomly pop into my head. So please all of you review. Review.

Until the next chapter

XThorn

P.S. Once again this chapter has not been BETA'ed so please forgive any spelling and grammatical errors, thank you.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: As much as it pains me to admit this, I do not own Naruto. That honour belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, how I envy him.

AN: So hi everyone, after over two months of a break I am finally back. I am so, so, so sorry for the pure lateness of this chapter but I had a really crappy holiday, then I had to get my grades to check in for University, then I had to sort out my Student loan, after that followed my 18th birthday, then I had to go out and buy supplies and finish off this project that the Uni set for the holidays, this was followed by a medley of other non descript boring stuff which has finally led to here, with me at University.

I know that isn't really any excuse for not writing something, even a little something, here and there but I have really been so busy I've just been focusing on the real life issues first sorry. But not to fear for those of you out there who thought that I had abandoned the fanfiction world I haven't deserted you all yet, you have to do a lot better than that to get rid of me.

Another thing that held me back was the classic horror of writers block. Although I had planned out what I originally wanted to happen in this chapter I decided that its contents would have much more of an impact if left to a later chapter, and so with those plans for the moment scraped and scuppered I truly struggled to come up with anything to fill the pages for this chapter, hopefully I haven't disappointed.

I've also decided to make this story a lot darker and bloodier than what I had originally planned on doing for three reasons. One, I find myself in a constantly melancholy mood of late, which I find makes this style of writing much easier. Two, that theme seems to fit this stories plot line much better than pure romance and fluff. And thirdly, I seem to be able to write those kinds of actions and genres much better than other things. But don't worry this is still a romance first and foremost.

Ok so you've all been voting well, thank you, and as such the votes for the final pairing with Sakura are as follows: Itachi 5, Sasori 4, Naruto 2, Madara 2, Deidara 1, Gaara 1, Pein 1, Sasuke 0, Neji 0 and Kiba 0. So that's how it stands so far, don't forget to keep voting for your favourite pairing as this could all change at any moment. Again I'm not completely ruling out the possibility of a harem, but the chances of that happening are miniscule.

So anyway thank you all for your support with this story and thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favourite and alerted this story, it's because of you guys that I continue to write. But don't forget to continue to review and I will try and update again as soon as possible, so review, review and review again. And now, on with the story. But don't forget to review. Review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 6<p>

It seemed like any other day.

It started like any other day.

But by the end of that day, Sakura began to understand just how dangerous her new life truly was.

Having managed to persuade Jiraiya last night that it was safer and more convenient for her to continue living in her family home, for the mean time at least, the young Haruno woke up bright and early from a fit full sleep. Well, it wasn't exactly a natural deep sleep, but one induced by a few handy sleeping pills that just so happened to be seated at the back of the pink haired woman's rather extensive medicine cabinet. Generally Sakura tried to avoid taking such things as they were bad for one's health, however she wasn't a morning person at the best of times and what with her hectic past few days, Sakura knew that she would never be in the right frame of mind for her early morning shift at the hospital unless she had her much needed rest.

Deciding to have a quick hot shower before she left the house, to further relax herself, Sakura stripped off her night wear of a thin red cotton tank top and black flannel jogging bottoms, and stepped under the torrent of the warm cascading water.

With the bathroom thoroughly converted into a Swiss sauna, the young medic finally exited into her bedroom and dressed into a navy blue pair of crisp new scrubs before grabbing her bulging backpack and locking her front door behind her. Not before grabbing her quick breakfast, consisting of a single shiny red apple, naturally.

Quickly scanning the area to make sure that the coast was clear of any sneaky yakuza heads, Sakura dubbed it safe and ran to the nearest bus stop were she just managed to hop onto the departing coach before it pulled away curb. Once again she checked around for any overly frustrating males, but upon seeing only complete and utter strangers she sat down on a nearby empty seat and watched through the window as the world passed her by.

Not too long afterwards the young woman vacated the bus and took the brisk stroll down the side road from the high street. Five minutes passed with the woman reciting passages from her medical text books from within the inside of her head and soon she was walking into the overly sterilised building that was the Tokyo General Hospital.

Once she had clocked in and secured her possessions within her named locker, Sakura hurried off and began her rounds with the current attending doctor.

The attendee, a rather pleasant man by the name of Ikuto, was only a few years her senior with the stereotypical tall dark and handsome good looks. He shared many of the same shifts as the pink haired student and what with his humours nature, intelligence and quick wit it didn't take long before the pair struck up a good strong friendship.

The morning rounds finished without incident and it wasn't long before the conversing pair made their way to the rather full cafeteria for a joint lunch. And although this too started out well, by the time Sakura was half way through her cheese omelette, her mood and day was about to drastically sour.

Spearing a large chunk of her light lunch, Sakura continued to converse with Ikuto "Well my week so far, were to start. It's been the weirdest, most hectic and awful week of my life since I lost my parents" popping the morsel of food into her awaiting mouth, she went on "Yes, I have to say that if I could forcefully erase this week, or even the past few days, from my mind then I would do so gladly and grab the opportunity with both hands"

Shaking his head lazily and smiling around the rim of his cup of instant coffee Ikuto asked "That bad?"

That smile was far too infectious for its own good and before she knew it the young intern was smiling along. Swallowing her mouthful of omelette Sakura mumbled quietly "You have no idea"

With a light clinking sound of cheap china knocking against the plastic surface of the cafeteria table, the dark haired man gently placed down his hot beverage as he chuckled at the look of vague anguish that shone in her emerald green eyes. Still he seemed to really want to know what had caused such a reaction from the usually upbeat girl "So enlighten me then? What could possibly be worse than that time when you had beaten up that new intern, hm?"

At this Sakura's head snapped right up straight as she jabbed her fork menacingly at the young man's broad chest as she cried out in indignation "Hey, that's not fair. The guy wasn't in uniform and was taking med's from the pharmacy, what was I supposed to do?"

Ikuto folded his hands into an arc and rested his dimpled chin on top of this self made platform "Not hospitalising the poor man would have been good start" he then lent back into the hard metal chair with an air of nonchalance as he slung his arm over the stiff back rest "Still, at least now we all know that you can adequately protect yourself"

Sakura graced that comment with a rather unladylike snort "More than adequate I would say"

Narrowing his eyes, but never removing the smile from his pale face, the young man simple said "Quite" he then reached over and grasped his steaming cup once again and brought it up to his lips as he tried a second time for an explanation to the woman's ire "So what happened then?"

Clearly this was not a subject that Sakura wanted to discuss as rather than simply replying, she began to poke at her food and push the few remaining bits of cooked egg idly around on her plate, only to mutter "You know, it's not healthy to only have a small cup of coffee for your lunch"

Not liking the pink haired Haruno's evasive behaviour his previous smile was replaced by a firm set frown "Yes I am aware of that fact Sakura-san, I am a qualified doctor, now stop avoiding my question or I'll put you on filing and paperwork duty for a month"

A sickening shudder rolled down the pinkette's spine. There were few tortures worse than paperwork in a hospital, and a month of it would drive even the most balance of people insane. And so, with a heavy sigh of resignation Sakura caved into demand, just as Ikuto knew she would "Fine, if you really must know. I've had a rather disturbing run in with the Yakuza"

Any sign of merriment flitted out of the attendee's dark black eyes as he froze in his chair, his cup of coffee nearly slipping from between his suddenly lax fingers "What did you do?"

A bolt of anger sprung to life and coursed through Sakura's veins as her once pale cheeks began to flush "Nothing. It was those bastards that won't get off my back for something that I don't want or have any control over"

Honestly, how could he think that she had done something to provoke some sort of reaction from those power hunger morons? Did he truly think her so stupid? From all the time that they had spent together, both inside the hospital and out, did he not know her at all? Perhaps they were not as good friends as she had first thought. Maybe he merely saw her as companion with whom to pass the time with, and not worth any true attention.

However these thoughts only added to the growing rage that was being stoked within her. She needed to keep calm and level headed, not to blow up in a blind fury half way through her hospital shift and at some she would have to then spend the rest of the day working with no less.

Ikuto pushed forward into his chair and braced himself on the table with his large hands spread out on either side of the table as his eyes took on a menacing glint. He was right up in her face now and the pinkette did not like this one little bit "Oh, and what is it that the almighty Haruno Sakura can't control that has those imbeciles so worked up over?"

Glare firmly in place Sakura refused to speak another word which did not go over well with the young man in front of her as he slammed his palms down onto the stained surface of the table and all but screamed "Tell me!"

However before the pink haired woman could even contemplate opening her mouth to reply a deathly cold voice spoke from over Ikuto's shoulder "She's our Hokage"

The speed at which the dark haired man whipped his head around was certainly efficient enough to have broken his neck, and judging by the frozen and paralyzed countenance that he was now displaying at the sight before him, it could have been easily believed that his neck had snapped. As standing tall and proud, surrounded by a menacing aura, was two dangerous looking men, smartly dressed in crisp dark suits of the highest quality.

It was the shorter of the two, who seemed to be the calmest at that point in time with a stony expression, with cropped blood red locks, who was the first to speak "It would be most wise for you to leave us now"

"Yeah asshole, before a certain disrespectful git gets hurt, yeah" spat the blonde as brushed aside the left lapel of his jacket and giving the sitting pair a glimpse of a holstered gun. Which they presumed was already prepared and fully loaded.

An equally dark look crossed over Ikuto's face, one that Sakura did not see but was clear as daylight to the pair of over baring men. Slowly, but with silent confidence, the man pushed back his screeching chair and stood up to his full height, only an inch or so taller than Deidara. He then lowered his head in recognition of the pair before he murmured "I have so things to attend to"

No sooner had he left the vicinity of the room then Sasori whispered "Check him" whilst still staring at the swinging door that the taller man had just exited through.

Pulling out a sleek and glossy mobile from within an inside pocket of his coat, the long haired man merely began to press buttons down on the key pad, obviously texting someone. He was still staring at the small lit up screen when he replied "On it"

This all happened within the space of a few seconds and by the time Sakura's brain had managed to process everything and get up to date, the pair had now slid into the two vacant seats opposite her from across the table. One with an ever so slight grin tugging at the corner of his lips and the other with a full blown grin plastered on his face.

"Sasori of the Red leaf" inclined the red head.

"And I'm Deidara of the Yellow leaf, Sakura-sama yeah. We're here to keep an eye on your works progress here in the hospital yeah" snickered the child like blonde.

Folding her arms tightly across her chest, unaware of the way she was now pushing up her breasts, she leant back into the harsh embrace of her seat as she openly glared at them both, much to their amusement "Oh, so this hoax is really happening then. What happened to the other two that actually set this charade up?"

Sasori couldn't help but to chuckle at that as he looked straight into her eyes and said, without even a hint of regret "They, unfortunately, were, shall we say, preoccupied. And alas their duties fell on our humble heads. But we do not mind, in fact we envied them prior to this change in arrangement"

At this, Deidara giggled like the man child that he was; knowing full well that both the youngest Uchiha and the Uzumaki brat were gagged and tied together by steel chains in the back of the head of the Orange leaf's car. All thanks to his truly. Not that he or Sasori was about to divulge that critical piece of information to their beloved cherry blossom.

Cupping his face in his smooth artistic hands the blonde dreamily sighed "So how is everything going here then Sakura-sama, yeah? Has your beauty alone healed anyone yet?"

Throwing her fork down in frustration, Sakura had had enough. She pushed her plate away from her, and the few pieces of egg left on the cheap disk of china, stood up tall and with her hands on her hips she said "Look, I'm having nothing to do with you Yakuza lot so you can drop the 'sama' right this instant. Now if you don't mind"

And with that she walked off without so much as a backwards glance at the suddenly dejected men still sat at the plastic table.

However this was the first time that Deidara had been so close to the beautiful young woman and he couldn't help but to call out after her retreating curvaceous form "Were are you going?"

Still without looking back, Sakura's melodic voice carried over the hubbub of the overflowing canteen "To do some actual work"

And just like that she was gone.

A wisp of steam within the smoke of fire.

And not a single person in the lunch room noticed any part of what had just happened.

Really it was for the best.

OOO

The day was ending.

She would be leaving soon and all would be well.

That's when she heard it.

A terrified shrill scream.

Sakura had just been finishing the last of her rounds, alone seeing as how Ikuto had suddenly decided to pull a vanishing act. But she still noticed the pair of _not so quiet_ men that seemed to be stalking her around the hospital where ever she went. Whether she was tending to a patient, filing in a bit of paper work or collecting tests and medicine, they were always there, just in the background. But still, they didn't bother her and they weren't in anyone's way so she let them be. Simple things pleased simple minds, she figured.

As she turned the corner that led to Ikuto's office, as she needed him to sign her progress report card so that she could hand it over for assessment at university tomorrow, the scream echoed off the walls.

Stood only a few paces in front of her was one of the senior nurses with a look of pure horror on her face. This particular nurse was a typical robust matron like woman that was scared by very little, save from spiders. But even Sakura knew that what the large woman was staring at must be something far worse than a spider to garner that sort of reaction from her. Even a large spider wouldn't cause such a harrowing shriek.

Braking out of her reverie the pink haired medic heard the nearby pounding of clusters of feet as people lay siege to find the cause of such a noise. It was at that moment that she noticed that the nurse was staring into Ikuto's office where the door was hanging ajar. That was the breaking point were Sakura made the quick sprint to stand side by side with the deathly pale nurse, before any other curious prying eyes could arrive. And what she saw made her sick to her stomach.

The office itself was in complete order and not a single thing was out of place. But the elephant in the room was quite literally staring them in the face. For there, hanging by his shining silk tie from the light shade, was Ikuto's stone cold body with his eyes wide open and staring out onto a world that he could no longer see. The glassy look that still remained in his dark obsidian eyes matched the shine of the crimson trickle that ran down the cadaver's chin and dripped down, tainting the pure white shirt that the young man had worn that day.

But a more puzzling observation, but no less horrific, was the fact that a standard gleaming scalpel lay in a pool of the sticky liquid below the corpse on the floor from where the doctor's wrists had been brutally stabbed and slashed. And there on the floor, just in front of red puddle, written in the still warm blood in capital letters was two simple, but confusing words.

"I'M SORRY"

And though she did not know it at that exact moment, she soon would.

This was to be how the life of Haruno Sakura would now play out.

A true horror.

* * *

><p>AN: Ha ha, a little longer than my usual chapters for you all there so I hope you enjoyed it. Just a little extra, a way of apology for my absurd lateness to update. I hope that you all forgive me and I'll try and update again more regularly like I did before.<p>

Yes I know that the ending here is a little confusing, but all shall be revealed in the next chapter or so. And I don't really want to move on with the romance too much until Sakura's met each of the men outside of that first meeting so that shouldn't be too long now either. You all have that to look forward to as I know you all are.

As usual continue to vote for your favourite pairing because, as I keep saying, it could all change at any moment and I've made out the plot in my head so that I can accommodate to any of the pairings. So continue with that please.

So please continue to review, favourite and alert as it is those actions that make me soldier on and continue to write. So please everyone review, review and then review again. Review.

Until the next chapter

XThorn

P.S. Once again, as perusal, this chapter has not been BETA'ed so please forgive any spelling and grammatical errors, thank you.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not any part of the Naruto franchise. That honour belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, the lucky man.

AN: Hey guys, did you miss me? Yes I know that this a pretty quick update compared to the usual gap between chapters, but I was so happy by the sheer amount of reviews and such that I received that I just had to quickly update for you all as a way of saying thank you. So yeah thank you everyone who reviewed, favourite and alerted this story, it means so much to me that you guys all like it.

After this chapter, updates will most likely go back to average time frame that it used to be like before I went away. Hopefully this will work smoothly again and after a couple of weeks I'll be back into the swing of it all and this entire story will flow nicely, both with the updates as well as the plot line; which I hope that you are all enjoying. I also hope that you like the darker side to this story as I have a feeling that, even if it is subconsciously done, I will be writing a lot more dark scenes and what not into this story.

Through the massive amount of reviews that I received for the last chapter to poll has finally got a brand new leader, although I suspect that by the way the reviews were writing that they were all done by the same person, but still I can't be sure of this so I have added each vote accordingly. Again there was another request for the pairing to wrap up as a harem, I shall see what I can do but I make no promises as I personally don't like harem stories and so I think that I'd struggle to successfully write out an acceptable and interesting plot line, thus destroying this entire story. But like I have said before, I won't rule anything out just yet but we shall have to wait and see. And so the votes for the end pairing with our heroine Sakura of this story thus far are as follows: Gaara 8, Itachi 5, Sasori 5, Madara 2, Deidara 2, Naruto 2, Pein 2, Sasuke 0, Neji 0 and Kiba 0.

So of course thank you to everyone that has reviewed, favourite and alerted this story so far, it really does mean the world to me. Without all this support that you guys have been giving me, I can tell you all right now, that I would not be here at this moment writing. It is due to all of the support from you, my readers, that I continue to create stories which I hope that you all fervently enjoy. And so don't forget to review this chapter. Review, review and then review again. Review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 7<p>

She hadn't felt like this for a while.

Not since her parents died at least.

Still, she had some form of comfort.

She wasn't alone.

Sakura had been completely distraught after seeing her dear friends limp body cutup and swaying from the light shade. It was like her body had shut itself down in some kind of mental self defence. As although a torrent of tears had streamed endlessly from her glazed and empty apple green eyes, she had not made a single sound, not even a gentle whimper of distress. Her eyes had merely locked onto the vertical corpse and her body went as stiff as a board. It was almost as if, through her intense gaze, the dead man's body was transferring over the effects of rigamortise to her and stealing away her natural warmth from her very soul.

Her naturally pale skin fell to a deathly white as a cold sheen of sweat began to appear on her brow. So hollow was she at that point that she did not even know how long she stood there for, nor did her usual quick and alert mind register when the hordes of curious people who had heard that horrifying scream, began to push and shove to see what had happened. The load buzz of screams, wails and shouting was just like a dull static noise ringing in her ears, but only barely processed at the back of her mind.

Normally, had Sakura been nothing more than a simple onlooker, then she would have been disgusted by the behaviour of the large crowd which had built up outside the crime scene, which the doctor's office effectively now was. Still, the pink haired female would have later found it in herself to forgive them all. They had only been curious, and curiosity was built into the human nature after all.

None of this mattered to the young Haruno at that minute as she was still transfixed and had not moved a single inch since she first saw the poor victim. Even when the mass of people had been pushing and shoving to get a front row glimpse at what all the hubbub was about, Sakura had been locked into place. Like the strongest of mountains, she would not be moved.

It wasn't until Deidara and Sasori ran up to her side, and the blonde physically lifted her up, that she finally moved. But still, as she was carried bridal style out of the hospital and into what can only be described as an overly flash car, she was empty. The wide eyes, which would occasionally blink, on her expressionless face was the only evidence that she _could _still in fact move. If only a little and purely out of necessity. A shell of her former fiery self.

Silently, with the tirade of salt water still pouring down her now slightly flushed cheeks, Sakura slumped in the back seat of Deidara's car as it sped off. Her head rested on the other man's shoulder as he rubbed soothing circles onto her back with the palm of his large hand and whispered calming words into her ear. Still she recognised none of this; her world was shrouded in darkness. The pure black evil, threatening to consume her. But even in this state Sakura could be strong, and she fought an internal battle to retain her sanity and will power.

She won.

Soon she found herself bundled up into a new set of arms and carried like a fragile porcelain doll out of the confines of the luxurious car and into the secure embrace of the Forest house. Time flew by and still the static look adoring Sakura's lily white face did not leave. Nor did she notice when she was deposited on the overly plump and stuffed ornate embroidered sofa. People busied themselves around her as they tended to her needs as well as giving out orders for people to discover what _exactly_ had happened. The young woman did not notice any of this as she continued to appear to stare off into space, her eyes continually wide and yet they took in nothing.

Slowly, through the passing hours, Sakura began to regain some sense of her surroundings, and when Jiraiya stormed into the drawing room and started to shout about how, for her own safety, she _had_ to stay in the Forest house compound, were the security would ensure that no one could do her harm, the pinkette suddenly found her voice and began to argue back like her old self. Although this reduced the worry from some of the men around her, and many released with held breaths that they themselves had not realised that they had been holding, she was still not getting angry and passionate as she usually did when fighting for what she wanted, she was appearing to have lost all of her lustre.

Eventually, after many deadened stares, the old man conceded to a compromise, if only for his own piece of mind. Sakura would be allowed to continue to live in her family home however Moegi was to also move in with her and help out around the house in whatever way she could, the white haired man hoped that this would give Sakura more time to relax and less of a chance to have a nervous breakdown. Also the detached house was to be under constant surveillance from a ten man team of Jiraiya's choosing. He was not about to take any chances when it came to his God child's safety, she was the last blood heir to the title of Konohagakure's Hokage. The Yakuza syndicate as a whole could not afford to lose her, and that was before personal feelings got dragged into it.

And so with a slightly less heavy heart the pinkette was allowed to return home with an absurd escort of several vans full of men at her disposal, as in Jiraiya's words 'just in case the car you're travelling in is targeted'. Still the ever hyped up Moegi sat beside her was at least one thing to be happy for; Sakura was rather fond of her.

Slowly after that the months went on and the pink haired student went back to her semi normal life. She had gotten over the death of Ikuto faster than she had for that of her parents, mainly due to the fact that the goggle obsessed little girl now living with her was a constant sea of support whenever she felt low or bereaved.

It hadn't taken long, only a matter of days really, for Konoha's intelligence team to discern what exactly had happened in the hospital office of Ikuto's which led up to his obvious death. Moegi had been the bearer of bad news that day.

Sakura had been sat down at her wooden dining table numbly eating a bowl of flavourless and dry cereal, still it was good for digestion, when the girl had toddled into the room in a sheepish manner. This alone was odd as the young Haruno had not once seen the small girl act in any way other than brash, so instantly her curiosity was piqued and her attention caught.

Moegi then lightly placed down in front of the heir a large mug of piping hot tea with a tiny glass of sake next to it. This was Sakura's favourite drink combination, and one that the younger girl had decided to designate for special occasions only. Again the pinkette was intrigued but patiently wait for the other female to sit down comfortably across from her, stop anxiously twiddling with her fingers and look her in the eye with the confidence to say whatever it was that was bothering her.

Finally deciding that interlocking her short fingers and the resting her hands on the pine surface of the table before her, gave a more mature and serious appearance Moegi finally cleared her high pitched voice and said "Umm Sakura-chan?" Sakura had refused to answer to anything else that the copper haired girl called her.

Swallowing the now ground up bite of breakfast in her mouth said woman merely raised a neatly shaped eyebrow and smoothly replied "Yes?"

The short girl worried her thin bottom lip between a set of pearl white teeth before releasing it and drawing in a deep shuddering breath. Only then did she continue "I just got off of the phone with Jiraiya-sama. He said that they had found out what happened to your doctor friend up at the hospital"

At this she paused at shot the elder girl an anxious look. Sakura placed down the silver spoon next to her bowl and focused her full attention on the slightly hunched over girl sat on the opposite side of the table. When after a while nothing was said, the pinkette realised that she was going to have prompt the now suddenly shy girl "And what did Jiraiya-san say had happened to him exactly then?"

Still Moegi hesitated and was clearly reluctant to divulge any further information and so in a soft and gentle voice Sakura added "Please Moegi-chan, I need to know"

Screwing up her eyes as tightly as she could and lowering her head so that her chin rested comfortably against her wash board flat chest. Shaking ever so slightly she finally began her explanation "After Ikuto-san left you in the cafeteria he went to his office where he made a phone call. Our intelligence was able to hack into his landline phone and retrieve his deleted message" here she paused and looked up straight into the older girls eyes, still with her head bowed "Sakura-chan I'm so sorry but your friend was working for a rival Yakuza group. He told them all about you and who you are. He betrayed your friendship Hokage-sama. They'll be after you now that it's widely known that Konoha has an heir. Your life will be in a constant flux of danger all because of that one man"

Sakura's hands balled up into tight fists. Her knuckles going white from the share force with which she was digging her short blunt nails into her palms. If she applied much more pressure she wouldn't just be making small red crescent moons on her pale skin, she would be full out drawing blood. Although she wasn't completely sure whether or not this reaction was due to the shock of finding out that a dear friend of hers was tied up with the Yakuza or the fact that said friend had so quickly and willing stabbed her in the back at the first opportunity that presented itself.

In a low and deep voice that would have scared many a brave man, Sakura asked "And what did Ikuto-san do once this phone call had presumably concluded?"

The fidgeting with her fingers resumed as Moegi looked back down at her now moving hands "Umm well he, you know, got out a scalpel and left that umm message for you, we think. Then he got his desk chair out and knotted his tie around the light cable which was hanging from the ceiling, which of course you would have known even if this hadn't of happened. I mean were else would you expect a lighting cable to be hanging from. It was stupid of me to say such an obvious thing, I mean really"

Before she could continue Sakura quickly interrupted her, a little harsher than she perhaps intended "You're rambling Moegi"

Head snapping up in alarm that she had maybe insulted the pink haired female, the young girl was quick on the mark to apologise "Oh yes right umm sorry about that, it just happens sometimes. Especially when I'm doing such an important job, just like this, you get me? I umm don't often get assigned these kinds of, err tasks, but I'm the only other person here with you so it seemed silly, well not silly really more like a ah, waste of man power, that's it, to send some else out here to tell you something that I already could"

Patience wearing dangerously thin Sakura forcefully snapped, looking every bit like the late Godaime, not that she knew this "Moegi get to the point"

At this stage the poor young girl was terribly worried and shaken that she reverted back to being overly respectful to the young Haruno "I'm so sorry milady, but umm you see once he had his makeshift noose secured he bent his knees and rocked the chair until it topped over which the caused the tie to tighten and well, yeah you know"

A long and deathly silent pause stretched out between the two girls. The uncomfortable atmosphere continued as Sakura reached forward and swiftly downed the glass of sake before she moved onto the still steaming mug of classic English tea and began to take delicate and dainty sips whilst she stared at the copper haired girl across the soft wood table.

Halfway through her hot beverage the pinkette decided that enough was enough and so she stood up proud and rigid as she made her way over to the slightly scared young girl. Bending down she embraced the small child in a deep hug as she whispered into her ear "Thank you Moegi-chan"

And with that she once again stood up tall before she grabbed the remainder of her tea and then vacated the room, she would deal with washing up her cereal bowl, spoon and glass later, if the goggle wearing girl did not see to it first.

Sakura decided then and there that she would not grieve anymore and so in the next few days after that event she went back to her normal self, even with the constant interference from nosy and annoying Yakuza men. For the pink haired Haruno had felt sorrow before and she knew that had she been mourning a friend then she would still be in her depressive state but she had already mourned for the friend that she had in Ikuto. Now she merely thought of him randomly in passing.

And she pondered on the death of a traitor.

* * *

><p>AN: So yeah I hope that you all enjoyed your special quick update. I was quite pleased with it myself, for I had planned on writing in a bit more but when I got to this stage I thought that it was better to leave it there and then continue the next chapter from where I had originally planned on ending this one. So I hope that you all liked it anyway.<p>

After this I plan on going back to roughly the regular time that I used to update my story to, if university doesn't get in the way too much, so you all have that to look forward to as well as the fact that I have now planned out this story right up to the point where Sakura has finally met each of our Yakuza boys personally. Also don't forget to vote in the poll, either through a review or a private message, as it seems to know be a two horse race so to speak, so if you don't want your favourite pairing to lose out then quickly get to your keyboards and vote.

Once again thank you to everyone who has supported me in my work thus far, you guys really rock and I would not be here writing now at one in the morning if it weren't for all of you, so thanks. And don't forget to continue to review this story and chapter. So review, review and review again.

Until the next chapter

XThorn

P.S. This chapter, like the majority of my work, has not been BETA'ed so please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors that you may have found in this chapter, thank you.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Everything in the world of Naruto, including Naruto himself, does not belong to me. In fact it all belongs to one manga art genius, Masashi Kishimoto.

AN: Hi guys I'm back. And I'm so, so, so sorry for late update of this. I know I promised you all that I'd now be back to regular updates, but reality has just proven to me that for this term at least that isn't possible. I have 4 projects on the go at the moment all with the same deadline which I am desperately trying meet on time, I then had to do my first essay which I thankfully managed to hand in with a few days to spare, then I had to do a project with my University whilst in Berlin (which was an amazing place by the way) and on top of that whenever I am able to go home for the weekend I spend all of that time with either family or friends so I haven't been left with an awful lot of free time lately. For example I should, by rights, doing my project work now but instead I'm writing this all out for you guys, you lucky people you.

However I only have one month left of this term and then I'm off to home for an entire month for Christmas, can literally feel how happy I am about this as I write? So yes I will finally be home for a wonderfully four weeks and although I've been told by one of my course leaders that we're going to be set a holiday project for that month, I should have pleffnty of spare time to get several updates done within that time.

I'm sorry to say that I am losing my mojo for this story but fear not as I shall continue on with it in the proper British manner until it is done. Maybe once I get the plot really rolling once they've all singularly met Sakura then I might find my love for this story rekindled, but either way I promise that I will neither rush this story to an end nor shall I abandon it.

People have also pointed out to me that they would like Sakura to actually have a friend and don't worry your pretty little heads about a thing she will defiantly have a friend arriving into this story soon, whether it's in this chapter or the next one I'm not quite sure about just yet but still this friend will be there none the less so you all have that to look forward to.

Ok so the votes for Sakura's eventual partner are as follows: Gaara 8, Itachi 5, Sasori 5, Madara 2, Deidara 2, Pein 2, Naruto 2, Sasuke 0, Neji 0 and Kiba 0. Thanks to everyone who as voted thus far and don't worry if the guy you were hoping for isn't in the lead you still have plenty of time to vote as this changes from chapter to chapter. You can vote either in a review or a private message, just let me know the name of the character that you want our heroine to end up with. And as always I make not promises with a harem so if you have a preference to a particular character then vote for them instead.

Thank you all for those of you who have taken a minute of your time to favourite, alert and review this story. It is because of you guys that I continue on, and force myself in some cases, with this story so I thank you all sincerely.

Right so that's this massive ass author's note out of the way and time for you all to enjoy the story so without further ado I present to you all chapter eight of Forest Yakuza. Also don't forget to review, review and review again as this is what helps to make me write so review and enjoy. Review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 8<p>

Time had passed by slowly.

Ever so slowly it crept by with naught but a whisper.

Sakura had, for the past several weeks, been in a depressive slump.

She would awaken in the early hours of the morning, were upon she would head straight to the shower. With the water at a scolding temperature she would then proceed to lather her pale body in her honey comb soap before rubbing her skin red raw, and on occasion she would even break the skin and watch with a mild fascination as the crimson liquid trickled down her arm and pooled and diluted in the now pink water draining away at her feet.

After rinsing off and drying with her soft fluffy white towel, Sakura would quickly dress before she dared venture outside her room. She had learned after the first time what happened if she walked out in just her towel after her intense cleansing sessions. She had walked into the kitchen in search of something to eat for breakfast that would keep her filled till late into the evening, allowing her to stay alone in her room for longer so that she had no reason to leave. Moegi had been living with her for a while now and as she too was female Sakura had felt no shame in walking around the house in her short towel; however upon entering the kitchen the younger girl had let out a horrified gasp as she saw the state that the pink haired girl had left her exposed arms in. A heated argument had quickly followed were the young girl shouted about how selfish Sakura was being about harming herself after everyone was trying so hard to help and protect her. Eventually the older woman had retreated and barricaded into her room for the rest of the day without food and refusing to talk to anyone. She had however relented after a long nights sleep and the pair had been quick to apologise and continue on with their lives. Thus Sakura only left the privacy of the four walls of her bed room when suitably covered in clothing.

Afterwards Sakura would eat a large breakfast in silence. Occasionally if Moegi was up at that hour she would have a brief, almost one sided, convocation with the copper haired girl. But this was a very rare occasion as the goggle wearing girl loved her lie-ins almost as much as Naruto loved his ramen. Sakura believed that she was only getting up so early to try and keep her company and thus she felt guilty for cutting the young girls precious sleep short. This effectively only added to Sakura's deep depression.

This was then followed by several hours of Sakura aimlessly reading and then rereading several textbooks that she had already memorised and could recite word for word. Still it never hurt to make sure that all that knowledge was safely locked away ready for use at even the slightest hint of an impromptu exam.

The pink haired student would then leave the house and walk to university. And despite how skilled and clever they may think they were, Sakura noticed when the Yakuza head's lackeys were tailing her. But with the way she was she really couldn't care less anymore and just let them get on with it; they were just doing their job after all it wasn't their fault that their bosses were chauvinistic pigs.

Anger would build up in her then as she walked and thought about the men that thought they had a right to interfere with her life just because she was the last in her family's line for this 'Hokage' title. A title that she didn't even want; a title that she despised. To be linked with that title meant that she was linked to the Yakuza, a bunch of criminals in Sakura's eyes, who deserved nothing more that to be locked up behind bars. Why for the love of God did she have to deal with them? Couldn't this dilemma have been thrown at some else? Someone that would have actually wanted the stupid position in the first place. Someone like Ino perhaps?

Sakura new that Ino what give her right arm and her hair to be in the position that the pink haired girl was currently in. The blonde was forever bitching about no one in her father's 'organisation' had yet to ask for her hand in marriage or even for _date_. Well at least no one with a standing high enough to impress the slut, otherwise she was apparently dripping in offers, but they just weren't good enough for her. But if she was Hokage then she could have any man she wanted effectively, she could probably even get a married man to divorce for her with a click of her overly manicured fingers.

Then again perhaps it was best that it was her and not someone like Ino that was be hounded to except her family's birth right. At least this way no families would be hurt and the only person in distress was herself.

And with similar thoughts throughout the day Sakura would study hard and quietly, attracting as little attention to herself as humanly possible before retracing her steps on the long trek back home at the end of good days learning. Upon arriving home she would march straight up to her room, do any outstanding work and then promptly go to be a ludicrously early time. She would then repeat this viscous cycle again come morning.

Moegi watched on for weeks as Sakura slowly beat herself up over what had happened at the hospital. Originally she had hoped that her idol would snap out of it and get back to her original lively self, however it was quickly becoming painstakingly clear that this just wasn't going to happen, a mere pipe dream, and so the young lady vowed to help heal her wounded friend.

And that's exactly what she did.

OOO

Ice-cream.

The stereotypical healer to all of a woman's problems.

But in this instance the stereotype was spot on.

It was a cold crisp mid morning which found a pair of young women sat on a lone park bench. Both were now in high spirits.

Earlier that weekend morning when Sakura had ventured down for breakfast Moegi had been sat at the table nursing a glass of warm milk when she noticed a suspicious plaster peering out from behind the hem of the older girls sleeve. For the copper haired young woman, that had been the final straw. The depression had to stop.

And so grabbing their coats, her purse and the front of Sakura's red hooded jumper, Moegi had proceeded to drag the silent and down trodden woman to the nearest available park that was close to a super market.

Once they had reached the store, which conveniently was situated right across the road from the large public park, the younger girl had marched right up to the ice-cream stand, precious cargo in tow, and ordered two of the tasty frozen treats. She had even splashed out and bought them each two scoops, vanilla and strawberry for Sakura, naturally, and chocolate and mint for herself.

Just holding the sweet dessert seemed to perk up the pink haired girl somewhat, and so with renewed hope Moegi led the way to the park and to the very bench on which they now sat in a comforting silence. The rustling of the trees leaves in the light bitter breeze along with songs of the early birds, the only sounds that could be heard. And yet both girls were happy and content for the first time in many weeks.

Having finished her first scoop of ice-cream, the vanilla, Sakura turned towards her companion and said ever so quietly "Thank you for this Moegi-chan, I really needed this"

A wide toothy grin was the pinkette's reward "Don't worry about it Sakura-sama, I'm just glad that I managed to get you out of that funk that you were stuck in"

Chuckling at the light description for her painful depression the young Haruno replied "Yes, I do suppose I've been a bit down lately. Sorry to have made you put up with me and my vile mood the past few weeks"

Moegi shifted her position on the bench and brought her knee up to rest against the wooden slats of the seat so as to be able to face the other girl head on "Don't mention it Sakura-sama, it's good to see you smile again. And before you know it we'll have you back to your old energetic and kick ass self. But do you know the best way for you to reach that goal?"

A pleasant smile tugged at her rosy lips and Sakura gently shook her head from side to side, causing several strands of wayward hair to fall into her half closed eyes.

The copper haired girl then raised a slender finger in the air next to her nearly devoured treat, which she then began to wag in her friends face in an action reminiscent of a mother teaching her child an important fact of life "With sugar. Sugar is a God send that heals all wounds"

At this declaration Sakura couldn't help herself, but to tip back her head and release a bell like laughter that echoed all around them. Tears gathered in the corners of her scrunched up eyes as she desperately fought to regain some form of her composure but it seemed like the old Sakura had resurfaced once more. A good day's work done within the first few hours of her day, Moegi mentally gave herself a well earned pat on the back and a lick of her ice-cream. Mission accomplished.

The pair continued to eat their respected treats as they watched the world slowly go by. This tranquil moment was disturbed when the happy young girl asked "Sakura-sama, do I embarrass you?"

A surprised look settled on the young Haruno's face as she turned away from her iced confectionary "No, of course not Moegi-chan. Whatever made you think such a thing?"

A light dusting of rouge appeared on Moegi's cheeks, which she would blame on the bite of the wind if asked. She looked down and began to pick at the white napkin wrapped tightly around her waffle cone "Well it's just that I've been living with you for a little while now and it's just that, well, you never bring any of your friends back to the house, so I wondered if it's because you're embarrassed to have me there"

Frowning ever so slightly as she replied, Sakura began "It has nothing to do with you at all Moegi-chan. I just don't happen to have any friends here in Tokyo"

This seemed to snap the younger girl out her thoughts as her head whipped around to stare wide eyed at her idol. How could she _not_ have _any_ friends? Why weren't people falling over themselves, fighting to be close her? She was just so, well, awesome. Gaping like a fish the copper haired female spluttered "What? B-but how can you not have any friends? Surely there must be someone?"

At this Sakura turned her head away to look into the distance with a wistful smile adorning her plump red lips. She seemed to be deep in thought, or at the very least reliving a happy memory "I do have one friend, but he moved away just before I started university. We were really close since we were little, we're both a little too smart for our own good. Perhaps that's part of the reason why we get along so well. Anyway I have asked him to come and visit but he has some personal things to sort out before he can come back to Tokyo. Still he promised to stop by as soon as he could, and I must admit I am rather looking forward to his visit"

Turning her head back to her companion, the girls shared a warm smile between friends amongst the chill of the mid morning wind.

And it all fell colder when a pair of dark shadows passed over and paused on the girls, blocking the little sun available.

And two tall men stood before them.

* * *

><p>AN: I'm so, so, so sorry that this took so long to get out but I lost my feel for the chapter about half way through and so this has just been sat on my laptop for the past week. Finally after finishing one of my many university projects I was able to force myself to write this and so here you all are, I hope you all enjoyed it.<p>

I'm also sorry that not a lot has happened in this chapter but I can a sure you all that the next one will be busy, busy, busy, hopefully not overly so, but a hell of a lot will be going on next time, I just hope that I don't overdo it. Still I hope you'll all like it.

I'm not one hundred percent sure when I'll be doing the next chapter but it'll either be sometime at the end of December or the start of January as that is when I have time off from Uni for the holidays, which I'm getting so excited about by the way. But I will do my best to get the next chapter of this story out there for you guys as soon as possible.

So don't forget to vote for your favourite pairing either as that will become increasingly important after the next three chapters or so. Also don't forget to review as it's your comments that spur me on to continue with my writing so review, review and review again. Review.

Until the next chapter

XThorn

P.S Once again, as per usual, this chapter has not been BETA'ed so please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors that you may have found whilst reading this chapter, thank you.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: As is the way with us Fan fiction writers, I am forced to admit that I do not own Naruto and that that honour belongs to none other than Masashi Kishimoto, the lucky, lucky man.

AN: So once again I am back, just as promised. And I'm writing this chapter before I've even started playing the Assassin's Creed Revelations that I got for Christmas so I hope you all appreciate it. I hope that you all had a happy Christmas a cracking new year anyway. Mine was kind of mellow but I have literally been either busy or out in the holidays so far since I've been home from University. I still have a project to do that my course has set me to do during the break, which has kind of pissed me off as this is my holiday here but any way.

I did do my very first request as well as my first one shot which was also my first Hetalia fan fiction, before I wrote this chapter and for that fact I'm really sorry to you all but my friend in real life asked me to do it for her so seeing as how she asked me months ago I felt that it was only right that I finally do it for her. And now it's done and posted so I thought it best that I now shake a leg and start on this for you all. Hopefully you'll all enjoy this and that it'll be well worth the wait but we shall have to wait and see.

I have a feeling that this story is going to be a lot longer than my other ones as we aren't even passed the beginning of this story yet, which is kind of freaking me out, but I'm British and as the stereotype saying goes 'stiff upper lip and all that'. So yeh I hope that you're all up for the long run as I can't see this ending the not so distant future any time soon.

Thank you all for continuing to vote, your helping to shape this story towards its later finale, so thank you all. Anyway here are all of the votes from the poll thus far: Gaara 8, Itachi 5, Sasori 5, Madara 2, Deidara 2, Pein 2, Naruto 2, Sasuke 0, Neji 0 and Kiba 0. I'm so happy that none of you have voted for Sasuke as I really hate that character and probably would bypass him and go onto the next most voted for pairing, so thank you for making my life easier on that front, you guys rock. Also don't forget to continue to vote for your favourite Sakura pairing, this can change at any point depending on who you all vote for, so don't lose out and help make this story the ideal one for you guys. As always you can vote via review or by sending me a private message, but please don't vote for a harem as I can tell you now that I'm almost one hundred percent sure that I won't be turning this story into one with a harem, so if you do vote for that then you will just be wasting a vote. Just thought that I'd give you guys yet another heads up on that, just in case any of you had an inclination to suggest it. I have nothing against harems; it's just that it won't work with what I've planned out for this story.

Besides all of this I hope that you all had a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you all for those of you who reviewed, favourite and alerted this story, it means so much to me you cannot believe it. Thank you all so much, you guys rock. Any way I hope you like this chapter and don't forget to continue to review, and then you have to review, review and review again. Review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 9<p>

It was a rather humour's sight.

Even the stern look on the pair's faces couldn't stop the laughter that bubbled up within the pinkette.

It just seemed to so ridiculous and surreal.

Before the pair of girls stood two tall men, decked out in the finest suit regalia, chokingly tight ties and all. Gems reflecting the respective male's leaf colour gleamed back from the platinum cufflinks, which too were tightly fastened. This however topped with the fact that both were holding untouched ice cream in their hands was what set the girls off. The sight was just too stupid to be real.

The head of the white leaf cleared his throat in an obvious attempt to gain the girls attention "Haruno-sama, you should not be out in such an open space with the correct security put into place"

Her lips repeatedly began to twitch as she tried to hold back the full blown grin that was desperately trying to stretch across her pale face. Ignoring the question directed at her she merely replied "I'm sorry, who are you again?"

The man that had originally spoken tilted his head ever so slightly, but retained his stiff and straight posture "I am Hyuga Neji, head of the white leaf. And this is the head of the grey leaf"

The man with an obvious thing for piercings inclined his head to the pinkette before supplying his own name, or rather his alias "Call me Pein, Hokage-sama. I respond to nothing else"

Sakura nodded her head in recognition before addressing the tall brunette "Well Hyuga-san, Moegi-chan here was just pulling me out of a proverbial ditch. And doing an amazing job of it I might add"

The young girl blushed a red hue and adverted her eyes to remnants of her uneaten ice-cream at the blatant compliment that her idol had just paid her. The happiness that welled up inside the copper haired girl was short lived however as the taller of the two men threw in his opinion "As she should. It is her job after all; anything less would warrant a dismissal and be completely unacceptable"

The young Haruno's infamous temper quickly flared at the hurtful statement the man had just directed at her little friend, the fact that the pierced man was looking down his nose at Moegi did not help in making Sakura warm up to him. The pinkette had few friends, so she understood how important it was to have them, especially when one didn't have a family to bond and socialise with. This in turn made her very protective of the people close to her, even if she had only known them for a short period of time.

Sending a sharp glare at the now surprised man, Sakura spat out "Excuse me but that is an awful thing to say. Moegi-chan would not be able to lighten my dark mood if this was just a job to her. She's my friend and I would appreciate it if you would treat her as such"

Neji smirked at his wide eyed companion. Clearly he had stepped out of line and lost any favour that he may have had from their Hokage before he even had a chance to woo her. This meeting couldn't have started in a much better manner the brunette believed. He finally got to meet the heiress personally and one of his rivals had just potentially knocked themselves out of the running to gain power for their branch group, before the race had barely started. Oh how this day was shaping up to be one of the best he had had in a long while.

Pein, however, was simply baffled by this turn of events. Surely someone with as much power as the Hokage of Konoha would not create a bond such as 'friendship' with a person of such low standing as the young maid sat beside her. For that was all the little girl truly was, a maid. She was of no other worth to their organisation. So what would merit the pinkette from befriending her?

Despite not understanding the workings of the females mind, the taller gentleman understood that he had indeed made a rather large mishap, and that if he did not rectify the matter soon then he would be in dire danger of losing the respect, and there for the power, that the Hokage may have garnered him with. Ergo he would have a lower social standing than the other members of their yakuza group. He had to fix this, _now_.

Coughing uncomfortably into his tightly closed fist, still well aware that he was having daggers stared right at him, Pein tried to pacify the enraged young woman "I am sincerely sorry for any offence you may have taken from what I said Sakura-sama. Believe me that was not my intention. Is there some way in which I can efficiently apologise my lack of manners?"

The glare transferred into a thoughtful look as Sakura pursed her lips and squinted her emerald eyes. Appraising the emotionless man before her the young Haruno began to tap her chin with her index finger. He did seem to genuinely want her forgiveness, although his intentions weren't quite as innocent, she suspected as the man clearly didn't quite understand what it was exactly that had offended her so. The fact that he was apologising to her rather than to Moegi also seemed rather out of sorts. Still she supposed she could give the guy a break, she had only just met him and as she suspected that she would be spending a lot of time with him and the others she decided that she should really try and get along with him. She'd let him off for his lack of propriety; this time.

Finally coming to some sort of decision she held out her empty pale hand as she said "Give me your ice-cream and we'll call it quiets"

Happily handing over his untouched frozen treat a smirk graced his smooth face. He cared little for such deserts anyway; savoury delicacies were much more suiting to his palette. A small insignificant sacrifice for a greater good. Yes indeed this transaction was most beneficial for him, and judging by the way the light in Sakura's large green orbs began to twinkle and the smile on her otherwise clam facade, the young Hokage was quite pleased with the swap to. An ice-cream in exchange for a small forgiveness; perfect.

This, however, did not please the Hyuga heir. So much for the little advantage, still he could bribe people with sweets just as well as Pein "Would you like my ice-cream as well Hokage-sama?"

Licking her new treat in a rather sensual manner, Sakura shook her head of luscious short rosette locks. Stating in between licks "No thank you Neji-san, my hands are rather full at the moment. But if you really don't want it, although I don't understand why you bought it then, you can always give it to Moegi-chan"

Although this wasn't quite the reaction that he had hoped for, the brunette couldn't find it within himself to much care; he was too fixated with watching the pinkette devour her frozen delight in such a tantalising way. Not removing his eyes from the sight before him, Neji blindly pushed his ice-cream into the general direction of the younger female until it was shyly removed from his tightening grasp.

A tentative "Thank you Hyuga-sama" was heard in the high pitched voice of the young girl, but no one was paying her any heed. Both males were transfixed with voluptuous woman silently torturing them. The only response that was given was a deep grunt of "Hm"

For a couple of minutes nothing happened. Moegi sat there rigid looking from the tall imposing men back down to her oblivious idol, who was sat contently consuming her two ice-cream's. Sweets truly were Sakura's Achilles heel, although that was obvious enough from the way she was scoffing down both of her treats. She was enjoying herself so much that she was off in her own little world, ignorant of the heated looks constantly on her. As for the men, that was all they did. Stand there and watch as impure thoughts danced merrily through their analytical minds. The lustful images could be clearly seen through their glazed over eyes.

Soon enough though the unwitting seductress had finished both of her frozen delights and was beginning to rise from the hard wooden bench.

Licking the trickles of ice-cream from her fingers that had made them all sticky she began to walk away with her young friend in hot pursuit. The two men just stood rooted to the spot, staring at her swaying ass as she walked away from them, so enraptured were they that it didn't even process in their minds that their superior was leaving them in an empty public park.

Looking over her shoulder at the two men she called out "Well we're off now. I assume I'll see you guys later. Oh and thank you for the ice-cream, it really helped to perk me up"

Moegi merely stayed silent as she gave each man a quick shallow bow and then running to catch up to Sakura before handing over one of her two ice-creams that she hadn't touched.

Once the girls were out of sight the men turned their heads to look at each other with varying levels of want and need. Neither said a word to each other though as they then looked down a blushed a deep dark red. Then ever so slowly they waddled over to the now vacant bench before slowly sitting down as far apart from one another as the bench allowed. Both fidgeted in various ways as they tried to think of the most repulsive thoughts possible to them. Pein's foot was twitching terribly as Neji continually patted his knees with his large palms.

Perhaps had they been paying attention to the situation sooner, rather than paying attention to the way in which Sakura had enveloped her long elegant fingers between her plump red lips and then sucked the remnants of the white sticky treat which had been her vanilla ice-cream off of said appendage, then they may have been able to prevent such an embarrassing situation as the one that they now found themselves in. As it was they were still men, no matter how intelligent, powerful, wealthy or controlled of their will, they would still react as any other man would when given an otherwise innocent image of someone that they were physically attracted to.

But still, this allowed them to reflect on their promiscuous thoughts and to store them away deep within their photographic memories for future uses. After all decent available woman were quite hard to come by in today's society and sometimes on a clear dark night when the brightest stars shone down on those below, it could get rather lonely in a large mansion on a night such as that. And when one is in a situation such as that then one must take care of one's self. This delectable encounter would merely be an aid when such endeavours arose.

Soon enough though both of the men's _large_ problems had passed and so they too stood up tall to their full heights whilst awkwardly straightening out their already immaculate designer jackets. They then looked at each other in thought, neither wanting to speak first, before the man coated in onyx piercings broke the taught tension with a harsh demanding question "We never speak of this, _ever_, agreed?"

A curt nod and a monotone "Agreed" was the only response that was given by the shorter male as he lightly glared at his equally awkward companion.

With that they turned away and strutted off in different directions.

Never to talk of this incident again.

* * *

><p>AN: Well there you all are, I hope that you all liked it. It turned out really perverted at the end there, I have no idea what came over me or what possessed me to write that. It just seemed to flow naturally along with the story. I have thought about writing my first lemon for a fanfic but I won't be doing it for this story as I just don't think that it'll work out with how I want this fic to go, so I'll probably leave that till my next story, although I have a feeling that it won't be brilliant but hey we'll see. As for this story if there are any more pervy parts in it then it probably won't be any worse than this and it certainly won't be enough to be classified as a lime or a lemon. I'm determined to keep this stories rating at T. It just be unfair to you guys if I were to just bump up the rating now, especially if some of you felt uncomfortable reading M rated stories but still wished to finish reading this fic.<p>

I'm sorry that this is a little bit later than planned but guess what, after I had just started writing this chapter my laptop got a crippling virus that only let me turn it on and off. My Dad and I spent three and a half hours on the telephone trying to get it fixed, but luckily it was. Although I am now constantly paranoid that something will happen to Alfred, that's what I've named my laptop. But besides this onetime I've never had issues with it despite the fact that the mouse pad just broke so I'm now using a plug in mouse, but other than this my lovely Alfred has yet to fail me.

I don't know when the next chapter will be as this is my last day of freedom before I go back up to Uni tomorrow, although it doesn't actually start again until Monday. Still what with the new projects that will be set I have no idea when I will have the time to write again for you guys but I shall get it done as soon as possible.

Besides all of that I hope you enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to vote for your favourite pairing as that will become vitally important after the next two chapters or so. Also don't forget to review; it's what makes me write for you all. So review, review and review again. Review.

Until the next chapter

XThorn

P.S. This chapter, like so many if not most of my others, has not been BETA'ed so please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors, thank you.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: As I'm sure that you're all well aware, I do not own Naruto. Never have done, never will, that honour belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I do however own this particular story.

AN: Well hello again all you lucky people you. I'm back, not as quickly as I would have perhaps liked but hey ho I'm back at university now and so life and work goes on. Good news though, after losing our first house me and some friends finally managed to sign for a nice house for next year. I'm really excited but ridiculously nervous too. Still it'll mean that I have a bit more free time as it's only a ten minute walk away whilst my current commute time is about one hour. Still I haven't done any of my new project yet, so once again I'm putting you all first, that and I really can't be assed to start it yet.

Now I don't want to sound too presumptuous but I was thinking about setting up a Twitter account for my author's page, but I'm not sure yet; plus I've never used Twitter before. But I was wondering if any of you guys would be interested in following if I did. To let you know if there are going to be any delays, such as when my laptop got a virus, and such things like that. Anyway let me know what you think so that I can either set it up or throw the idea away as just being overly stupid.

Life I getting on top of me at the moment so I'm writing this as a form of escape today, I hope it works. Although I must admit, I have recently developed a new obsession. Anyone watched the film Labyrinth? I only just got introduced to it a week or so ago and I already have a Jareth cosplay put together lol. Who knew that they made such mental films back in the 80's hehe.

Right well thank you all once again to those of you have reviewed, favourite and alerted this story. It really makes me push on with this, even when I am on the brink of giving up. Also a massive thank you to those of you who have once again voted for your favourite pairing, we are nearing the point where those votes truly come into play and so far as it stands the votes are: Gaara 8, Itachi 8, Sasori 5, Pein 4, Naruto 3, Madara 2, Deidara 2, Sasuke 0, Neji 0 and Kiba 0. So as I said this is getting really important soon so continue to vote via review or private message. Also StarKiss666 to answer your question, I'm sorry but you can't vote for Shikamaru, there is a good reason for this which shall become clear in about two or three chapters time.

Anyway now that, that is all done it's on with the story, thank god I hear you say. So without further ado here is chapter 10, enjoy. But don't forget to review, it's what spurs me on to write for you all the more, so review, review and review again. Review.

* * *

><p>Chapter 10<p>

But a moments peace.

That's all that she wanted.

Just a moments peace from _them._

But it would seem that it was not to be. Especially if the constant, but regulated, ringing of her front door bell was anything to go by. Three rings of the loud chime, silently followed by exactly fifteen seconds of nothing. No voices, no knocking and no further ringing of that blessed bell. Then a quarter of a minute later, on the dot, the chime would go off thrice more.

This is what caused Sakura to drop and smash her morning cup of tea. No one ever really came to her house, especially not at ten in the morning, and so the sudden quick succession of rings from her bell surprised her to such an extent that she had jumped a mile high. The result of which was now staining her kitchen lino, with sharp porcelain peaks thrown into the mix.

Besides the few curse words that she mumbled towards the person, or persons, that had inadvertently caused the ultimate destruction of her favourite cup, by the time the pinkette had picked up the dangerous shards, wrapped them in yesterday's newspaper, and thrown them into the bin she had already worked out the obvious pattern of the mysterious button pusher.

She then lent against her kitchen door frame with her arms loosely crossed and her hip jutting out as she stared at the front door for several minutes, waiting for the murderer of her tea cup to give up and go.

When, after a long agonisingly boring five minutes, it was painstakingly obvious that the offender was not going to do the sensible thing and _give up_, Sakura huffed out a heavy sigh as she pushed herself up right and slowly strolled towards her locked front door, still hoping that the person would wonder off believing her not in; just like a normal person would do. But as she looked out of her peep hole she realised why these two men hadn't left as ordinary people; because they _weren't_ ordinary.

Just as the young Haruno was about to walk away, turn on her i-pod and plug in her knock off head phones, she was stopped by a deep slightly muffled monotonous voice from the other side of her wooden door "Sakura-sama, we know that you are on the other side of this door. Your shadow blocked out the light from the fish eye lens in your door. Had we meant you any ill then you would have been shot dead through this obviously thin door the minute that you gave away your exact location"

Raising a neatly plucked pink eyebrow at the sheer weirdness of that statement, Sakura was promptly interrupted from the witty retort dancing on the tip of her tongue, by a louder voice "Itachi-san don't be such an analytical prick. Sakura, love, we know you're listening behind this shoddy piece of wood that you call a front door. Open up precious, before we have to kick your door in"

Oh yes because that was a much better way to get someone to unlock their home, threaten to brake in and cause costly damage if they weren't allowed access; splendid. Between that and being told that she could have been shot dead by now, the pinkette was sourly tempted to turn tail and head back to bed. It's not as if her case study report had to be handed in by eight o'clock that evening, which was currently sitting un-concluded in a file some were on her ancient laptop.

Opening her mouth to spout out a clever line which would blatantly tell the two men to 'sod off, she was silenced once again by that deep monotone. Although truth be told, it did seem to raised in pitch ever so slightly "Madara-san do not speak so informally to Haruno-sama"

A sharp tsk was shortly followed by "But that's what people in love do. You know couples such as Sakura and I are prone to ditching the archaic social structures that are deemed acceptable by you narrow minded lot"

The young female was contemplating the outcome of yanking open the door and slapping the older male hard across the face when the now irate voice replied "You are not a _couple_ Madara-san, you have met the young lady only once, and barely said a word to her at that. And further more it is not just about what society dictates, it is just good manners to show respect to those of higher standing than yourself"

This was getting out of hand; they were acting like a pair of children not grown men. Honestly as men with authority they should set an example, not squabble amongst themselves over who got to play with the new toy.

Reaching forward Sakura tightly gripped her door and slid the chain lock across its panel just as the second voice replied in a sulky voice "So what, you've only met her once too. And spoken to her less than me, I might add. So shove that up your a-"

Quickly pulling open the rectangular wood, the pinkette cut off the following string of curse words with light glare and a less than impressed tone of voice "Gentlemen, to what do I owe this displeasure?"

The atmosphere that had been ominously building instantly dissipated into nothing, leaving behind a much more tolerable mood as the two men quickly directed their gaze to the beautiful young woman. Both then relaxed their posture, ever so slightly, as they began to explain the meaning behind their impromptu visit.

The younger of the two men calmly cleared his throat before he replied to his Hokage's question "You see Sakura-sama, it has been brought to our attention that your twenty first birthday is fast approaching and we were sent to make sure that you were duly prepared for the festivities that are to ensue as a result of this special occasion"

Shaking his head at his young nephew, Madara re explained the situation "We're here to make sure that you get a stunning dress for your Birthday party, love"

Arms locking across her chest Sakura stood firmly in her door way blocking the entrance to her personal sanctuary, lest either man think that they had an invitation to go inside "I am not your _love _Madara-san. And neither am I in need of a dress that I cannot afford, I have no intention on frittering away my valuable income on a party or a celebration of any kind for my birthday. So I am sorry to say that you have both had a wasted trip here today, but I advise you both to just leave and go home"

A smirk tugged gently at the corners of Itachi's mouth. The young woman was certainly a source of endless amusement if nothing else "Oh do not worry about such things as money, Hokage-sama. Jiraiya-sama has paid and organised the entire soiree, you merely have to pick out a desirable gown for yourself and then attend. The cost of the dress has also been covered so do not worry about the cost, merely which dress you feel most comfortable in"

As if sensing her reluctance to accept another person's money, because god knows how much this was all costing the poor perv, not that money was an issue for someone with his wealth, the man with the jagged hair style quickly intervened "To refuse would not only be rude precious, but it would also be a monumental waste. Think of all the time and effort that your dear Godfather has put into arranging all of this, not to mention the small fortune he's spending trying to make you happy on your special day. How selfish it would be of you to not even get a dress and at least show your pretty face, hmmm?" Just because he knew that the loss of that amount of money would be water off of a duck's back for the Sannin did not mean he could not use it to manipulate the kind hearted soul before him. She truly was too innocent in that respect.

Cheeks reddening in embarrassment at the thought of practically turning her nose up at what her guardian was trying to do for her, she hastily replied "But Jiraiya knows that I don't like to be spoilt in such a way. And besides even if I do decide to go, which I might not, I don't need to waste more of his money by getting an overly lavish dress; I already have a dress hanging in my wardrobe which would do just fine thank you very much"

Mimicking Sakura's defensive posture of arms folded across ones chest, although much more laid back than the stiff form of the pinkette, Madara snorted "Oh please love don't lie to us, it hurts me deeply that you would do such a thing. Besides before you go off saying that you do truly have a dress some were hidden amongst all your jeans, hoodies and scrubs we know for a fact that you don't. Jiraiya-sama made it perfectly clear to us that you do not own a single dress, skirt or feminine outfit. And as such he has demanded that we take you to the designer that he has lined up especially for you. We have been give permission to drag you there kicking and screaming if needs must, but we would much rather that you willingly came with us and tried to get some fun out of this"

A deep dark frown marred her pale features as the medical student began to tap her left foot whilst deep in thought, the two men before her remained silent as they waited for her to reach a verdict. They had laid all the cards out on the table and made their case, it was down to her now to decide whether this little shopping trip went the easy way or the hard way.

After a moment or two of constant foot tapping and the occasional twitch of her eyebrow Sakura heaved a huge sigh of resignation, she would be going to this stupid designer one way or another so why fight it tooth and nail, pick your battles wisely she reminded herself "Fine I'll be your willing hostage, just give me a minute to change, wait out here"

As she turned away and promptly slammed the unlocked door into the surprised faces of the Yakuza leaders she couldn't help but to mumble under her breath in a foreboding tone of voice "I'm going to kill you for this Jiraiya"

And she meant it.

Ever word.

OOO

Well this was horrendous.

Completely and irrevocably horrendous.

However did she think that she may be able to find a glimmer of enjoyment out of this stereotypically girly shopping trip?

Sakura hated shopping, but what's more she hated dresses. They were useless, irritating and overpriced. One could not properly move around in a dress, which when compared to trousers, restricted the normal function of even being able to walk. And if instead a loose baggy dress was bought then it would be too much of a nuisance to try and watch one's steps so as to not fall ass over face by catching her foot within the yards of pointless fabric. She wasn't even going to go into cons of her wearing a short dress as they all knew Jiraiya, and knew that there were many more people like him out there in the world; perverts.

Still, Sakura knew that she had to purchase some form of formal clothing from this high end designer before she would be once again granted her freedom, but the pinkette had hoped that she would be able to persuade the two men into allowing her to get a trouser suit, even a fitted female one. But no such luck, they had been clearly told that she was only to be left in peace once she had selected a dress, and nothing less would do. And as much as it had shamed her, Sakura's non to subtle attempts at flirting to get her way had fallen on deaf ears. All she had managed to get from that had been a pair of laughs from the hyenas in tailored suits and a disapproving glower from the plump woman holding up a gordy canary yellow puffy dress. Sakura would rather drop her internship at the hospital than to be seen dead in that hideous thing.

If this is what was deemed as _fashionable_ then the pinkette was glad that she cared so little with keeping up with the modern trends. Give her a pair of skinny stretch jeans and baggy jumper any day and she would be happy and content.

This had been going on for several hours now and the young Haruno was beyond losing her rag with this entire situation. Her emerald eyes were reeling from the sheer amount of frills, bows and diamantes that she had been forced to try on, but that wasn't the worst of it. If she even found a single dress that didn't just scream out _tacky_ for all it was worth then it showed far too much skin to be considered decent, not that the two dark haired men sat patiently behind the dressing room curtain complained about it. Honestly if she weren't so sure that they were there to make sure that she didn't do a runner, then she would have easily believed that they were there in hopes of spying her legs and cleavage.

But then just as all hope seemed lost amongst the lace, she saw it. An elegant dress which, whilst not allowing her to run or take big steps, she would be able to easily walk in. It did have a little bit of poofy ruffles at the very bottom but it wasn't in your face, instead it added just that tiny bit of detail that kept it from being plain. Nor was the gown revealing or a garish colour; it was perfect. Well as perfect as a dress could be for her inner woman that had decided at that moment to poke its head around the tom boy that stood at the fore front of her mind.

Yes it looked brilliant on her figure too, it was perfect in every sense of the word, she even reframed from looking at the price tag so that she wouldn't put it back and pick out a cheaper one. It could be the dearest one there for all she cared at the moment, it would server Jiraiya right for putting her in this situation in the first place, if she took out a nice chunk of his ample bank account.

Once the dress had been given the go ahead by her _chaperones _it was swiftly perchased.

And now two hours on from the moment the platinum credit card was handed over she was back home. And what's more she was alone.

Home alone.

Perfect.

* * *

><p>AN: Well there you have it, I hope you guys liked it. I think until my holidays come back around, what with the sheer amount of uni work that I have, it would be a safe bet to say that the next update will be in about a month's time, but I will try to get it out to you sooner if I can.<p>

Only one more character to meet now before this truly gets going but it won't be the next chapter, no, that's where Shikamaru is finally going to come into this after popular deman. So I hope you all look forward to that.

I know that I didn't really explain the dress well there but that's because I want to leave the grand revealing until her actual party, but not to fret as I have to design of the dress neatly stored away in my mind, and I shan't forget it.

So don't forget to review and vote for your favourite pairing. Happy Valentine's day to you all. Review, review and review again. Review.

Until the next chapter

XThorn

P.S. Much like most of my chapters, this one has not been BETA'ed so please forgive any spelling and or grammatical errors, thank you.


End file.
